IHOMAS  HERON  Me  KEE 


BANCROFT  LIBRARY 

•o 

THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


J.  Porter  Shaw  Collection 


Gift  of 
Marguerite  Bachrach 


THE  GUN  BOOK 


FOR  BOYS  AND  MEN 


BY 

THOMAS  HERON  McKEE 


WITH  NUMEROUS  ILLUSTRATIONS 


NEW  YORK 

HENRY   HOLT   AND   COMPANY 
1918 


COPYRIGHT,  1918 


HENRY  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 


THE    QUINN    A    BODEN    CO.    PRESS 

RAMWAV,  N.  J. 


c\  b 


PREFACE 

WHEN  man  or  boy  becomes  interested  enough 
in  firearms  to  want  to  know  what  sort  of  an  in- 
strument the  gun  really  is,  and  how  it  performs 
its  work,  he  is  not  made  much  the  wiser  by  read- 
ing that:  "A  gun  is  a  thermodynamic  machine 
by  which  the  potential  energy  of  the  explosive 
is  converted  into  the  kinetic  energy  of  the  pro- 
jectile." Nor  will  the  curious-minded  beginner 
get  much  useful  information  on  the  subject  by 
questioning  poorly  informed  adults  who  may  tell 
him,  as  they  did  the  author  in  his  youth,  that 
the  bullet  does  not  "get  up  speed"  until  it  is 
some  distance  from  the  muzzle;  or  that  the  mis- 
sile does  not  begin  to  drop  in  obedience  to  gravity 
until  late  in  its  flight.  Such  misinformation  takes 
on  so  many  forms  that  the  more  of  it  the  inquirer 
listens  to  the  greater  grows  his  bewilderment. 
Between  these  two  extremes  of  overexactness 
buried  in  mysterious  scientific  terms,  and  of  false 
theories  carelessly  uttered,  the  seeker  for  light 
on  the  elementary  problems  of  gunnery  suffers 
almost  as  much  today  as  he  ever  did. 

iii 


iv  PREFACE 

The  purpose  of  this  book  is  to  set  forth  accu- 
rately, but  in  simple  words,  the  essential  principles 
of  the  gun  as  a  projecting  apparatus,  illustrating 
more  difficult  points  by  reference  to  familiar  ob- 
jects. As  this  end  seemed  best  attained  by  trac- 
ing the  upbuilding  of  the  gun  step  by  step,  from 
its  primitive  form  to  its  more  complicated  and 
powerful  modern  successor,  the  plan  has  been 
adopted.  It  is  not  claimed  that  the  work  adds 
anything  new  to  the  science  of  gunnery,  though 
in  those  matters  where  opinion  is  allowable  the 
author  has  drawn  a  little  upon  his  own  experi- 
ence, which  has  covered  a  long  period  of  time. 

In  order  that  the  novice  may,  early  in  his  study 
of  gunnery,  learn  the  fact  that  the  hand  gun  is 
something  more  than  a  mere  efficient  machine  of 
wood  and  metal,  emphasis  has  been  laid,  so  far 
as  the  limits  of  the  book  would  allow,  upon  the 
vital  influence  which  firearms  have  had  upon  the 
lives  of  men.  The  gun  is  really  a  great  human 
institution,  an  intimate  knowledge  of  which  is 
necessary  to  the  understanding  of  history.  If 
this  book  helps  to  inspire  more  reverence  for  our 
venerable  weapon  friend,  its  main  purpose  will  be 
achieved. 

As  the  reader  may  care  to  know  why  he  should 
place  reliance  on  the  author's  statements  about 


§  PREFACE  v 

guns,  the  following  brief  statement  is  offered  "in 
extenuation. ? ' 

The  author  is  a  graduate  of  Columbia  Uni- 
versity, a  lawyer  by  profession,  and  has  in  his 
work  been  required  to  delve  rather  deeply  into 
the  sciences  of  physics,  chemistry,  and  mathe- 
matics upon  which  gunnery  is  based.  The  au- 
thor's preparation  for  the  writing  of  this  book, 
upon  its  practical  side,  began  when  as  a  youth  on 
the  Western  frontier  he  helped  in  a  small  way 
to  open  for  settlement  the  regions  of  the  upper 
Missouri  against  the  Indians  and  lawless  whites. 
The  adventures  of  the  author  at  this  period  have 
been  in  part  chronicled  in  a  book  published  some 
years  ago  entitled  Cattle  Eancli  to  College.  Those 
who  have  read  that  biography  of  a  Western  boy 
need  not  be  told  that  a  very  complete  practical 
knowledge  of  guns  and  shooting  was  necessary 
to  one  who  succeeded  in  maintaining  his  exist- 
ence through  those  troublous  days. 

But  though  the  pioneer  knew  the  powers  and 
limitations  and  peculiarities  of  his  weapons,  the 
scientific  principles  involved  in  the  firing  of  a 
successful  shot  were  far  beyond  his  ken.  From 
this  lack  of  understanding  the  author  himself 
long  suffered,  and  that  in  spite  of  zealous  efforts 
to  gain  a  deeper  insight  into  the  mysteries  of 


VI 


PREFACE 


the  gun  as  a  projecting  machine.  The  time 
came,  however,  when  the  author  found  himself  in 
huge  libraries,  arid  admitted  freely  to  the  files 
of  current  literature  on  guns.  He  thought  then 
that  the  end  had  come  to  his  long  period  of  ear- 
nest inquiry  as  to  why  things  in  gunnery  were 
done  thus  and  so.  But  the  hope  was  not  to  be 
so  easily  gratified.  The  desired  information  was 
all  within  those  stacks  of  books  and  magazines, 
to  be  reached  and  acquired,  however,  only  by 
laborious  search  and  a  piecemeal  sifting  process 
that  few  laymen  could  afford  to  carry  on.  This 
situation,  in  the  author's  opinion,  called  loudly 
for  remedy.  We  owe  too  much  to  the  gun  to 
permit  its  honorable  past  and  more  recent  won- 
derful attainments  to  rest  in  practical  obscurity. 
Hence  the  writer  began  keeping  a  series  of  note- 
books in  which  he  entered  from  time  to  time  in- 
formation and  suggestions  about  guns  from  every 
source  that  came  under  his  eye,  with  the  hope 
that  in  some  future  day  leisure  would  permit 
preparation  by  him  of  the  sadly  needed  book. 

The  opportunity  to  further  his  own  education 
in  gunnery  and  to  compile  the  present  volume 
came  unexpectedly  to  the  author  when  three  years 
ago  he  was  ordered,  for  health  considerations, 
to  take  up  an  indeterminate  residence  amid  the 


PREFACE 


vn 


dry  wastes  of  the  great  Mojave  Desert.  Since 
that  time  an  exile  otherwise  almost  unbearable 
has  been  made  not  only  profitable  but  most  inter- 
esting by  the  companionship  of  guns,  books  relat- 
ing to  them,  and  simple — often  home-made — ap- 
paratus by  means  of  which  many  experiments 
new  and  old  have  been  carried  out.  The  first- 
hand information  so  gained,  added  to  the  facts 
previously  accumulated,  is  now  gathered  to- 
gether in  THE  GUN  BOOK,  all  so  simply  set  down, 
it  is  hoped,  that  he  who  runs  may  also  read. 

In  order  to  confirm  its  accuracy  the  manu- 
script has  been  submitted  to  and  examined  by 
a  trained  expert  in  gunnery,  who  made  a  few 
minor  suggestions,  but  to  the  work  as  a  whole 
kindly  gave  his  enthusiastic  approval. 

THOMAS  HEKON  McKEE. 
Los  Angeles,  California. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

I     EARLY  USE  OF  POWDER  AS  A  DRIVING  FORCE 


PAGE 

3 


II     BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  GUN 16 

III  PROGRESS   IN   IGNITION 39 

IV  ABOUT  GUNPOWDER 54 

V  GOOD  WORKS  WROUGHT  BY  THE  GUN   ....  70 

VI  RECOIL — A  CONTEST  WITH  NATURAL  LAWS   ...  87 

VII  THE  OLD  SMOOTH-BORE  AND  ITS  SPHERICAL  BULLET  .  100 

VIII  THE  SPHERICAL  BALL  AND  THE  RIFLED  BARREL  .       .  Ill 

IX  THE  LONG  BULLET  AND  THE  MUZZLE-LOADING  RIFLE  126 

X  THE  LONG  SEARCH  FOR  A  BREECHLOADER     .        .       .  139 

XI  ARRIVAL  OF  THE  PERFECT  BREECHLOADER     .       .        .  155 

XII     ARRIVAL  OF  THE  REPEATER 175 

XIII  TRAJECTORIES  AND  SMALL  BORES 192 

XIV  THE  PRANKS  OF  THE  LONG-POINTED  BULLET       .        .  209 
XV  SMOKELESS   POWDER      .       .               ...        .        .       .  228 

XVI     THE  MODERN   RIFLE   .     ,  . 246 

XVII  FROM  MACHINE  GUN  TO  AUTOMATIC  RIFLE       .        .  265 

XVIII  How  THE  NEW  WEAPONS  HAVE  AFFECTED  THE  ART 

OF  WAR 291 

XIX    SHOTGUNS       .       . 301 

XX    THE   PISTOL   .       . 316 

XXI     THE  GUN  OF  THE  FUTURE 329 

XXII     THE   PRINCIPLES  OF  SHOOTING 342 

INDEX      . 359 


THE  GUN  BOOK 


CHAPTER  I 


EARLY  USE  OF  POWDER  AS  A  DRIVING 
FORCE 

WHEN  a  boy  engaged  in  the  old-fashioned  but 
joyful  pastime  of  shooting  firecrackers  comes 
across  one  that  refuses  to  explode,  does  he  resent- 
fully cast  it  aside  and  reach  for  another?  No 
indeed!  That  stubborn  paper  tube  will  still  fur- 
nish sport.  For  the  sake  of  variety  it  is  even 
the  better  for  having  failed  to  go  off.  It  is  laid 
on  the  ground,  gently  bent  until  it  cracks  open, 
some  of  the  dusky  powder  grains  falling  in  the 
gap;  then  lighted  match  or  glowing  punk  is  ap- 
plied, and — Sizz!  A  spiteful  hiss,  a  stream  of 
flame,  and  the  boy's  nervous  hand  is  snatched 
away,  perhaps  with  a  burnt  finger  or  two.  It 
was  a  fine  exploit ! 

But  when  that  sizzer  went  off  a  more  important 
thing  happened  than  the  searing  of  fingers  or  the 
mere  making  of  fire  and  smoke  and  noise.  Ob- 
serve another  and  almost  magical  result.  Where 
are  now  the  smoldering  remains  of  the  cracker? 

3 


4  THE  GUN  BOOK 

Not  where  they  were  so  carefully  placed  a  mo- 
ment ago,  but  several  inches  or  perhaps  feet 
away,  thrown  there  violently  by  the  escaping 
powder  gases.  Here  is  a  simple  demonstration 
of  a  great  idea ;  a  fact  of  tremendous  importance ! 
This  playing  boy  with  a  modest  sizzer  has  done 
the  thing  that  lies  at  the  root  of  the  whole  science 
of  gunnery,  for  he  has  used  powder  as  a  driving 
force — a  propellant. 

The  sizzer,  or  squib  as  it  should  be  called,  a 
powder-filled  tube,  open  at  one  end  and  closed 
at  the  other,  is  really  the  direct  parent  of  the 
great  modern  gun.  From  this  simple  source 
sprang  the  weapon  which  can  throw  a  destroying 
projectile  into  the  bowels  of  a  battleship  tens 
and  even  scores  of  miles  away,  or  at  equal  dis- 
tances play  havoc  with  the  stoutest  forts  men 
can  contrive.  Many  centuries  had  to  pass  before 
the  humble  squib  finally  taught  men  to  make  and 
use  the  mighty  artillery  of  today ;  but  long  as  the 
record  is,  and  in  spite  of  the  blank  spaces  appear- 
ing here  and  there,  we  are  able  quite  clearly  to 
trace  the  family  relationship  between  the  squib 
and  cannon. 

Look  for  a  moment  at  the  pinwheel,  one  of  the 
oldest  of  powder-driven  devices.  It  is  simply  a 
series  of  squibs  made  fast  to  the  rim  of  a  wheel. 


EARLY  USE  OF  POWDER  5 

One  tube  at  a  time  is  lighted,  and  as  the  powder 
gases  rush  out  of  the  open  end  they  press  against 
the  closed  end  of  the  tube,  and  thus  the  wheel  is 
pushed  round  and  round.  The  force  that  does  the 
work  is  that  which  we  call  recoil  or  kick  when 
speaking  of  guns,  and  of  which  much  more  is  to 
be  said  later  on.  But  even  though  the  pinwheel 
may  be  said  to  travel  backward,  it  uses  powder 
as  its  propellant,  and  so  is  an  important  link  in 
tracing  the  history  of  the  gun.  Indeed  the  con- 
duct of  the  squib  and  its  related  devices  might 
lead  us  to  declare  that  gunpowder  literally  backed 
its  way  into  the  world  and  into  the  affairs  of 
mankind. 

Older  than  the  pinwheel,  perhaps,  is  another 
variation  of  the  squib — the  rocket.  The  ancient 
Edison  who  invented  it  may  have  been  an  almond- 
eyed  Chinaman  or  a  turbaned  Hindu,  for  among 
one  or  the  other  of  these  peoples  the  rocket  seems 
to  have  originated.  Remarkable  as  this  con- 
trivance is,  we  know  little  or  nothing  of  the  time 
and  place  it  first  appeared.  It  came  to  us  from 
the  Orient  before  our  Middle  Ages  began.  At 
that  we  have  to  let  the  matter  rest,  at  least  for 
the  present.  The  genius  who  produced  it  has  like- 
wise been  long  forgotten. 

But  we  can  easily  picture  in  our  minds  the 


6  THE  GUN  BOOK 

delight  and  amazement  of  the  dark-skinned  in- 
ventor as  he  fastened  a  stick  to  his  squib  to  serve 
as  a  guiding  tail;  and  then  touching  off  the 
powder,  saw  his  apparatus  go  soaring  into  the 
sky,  leaving  a  wake  of  flame  and  smoke.  Not 
even  the  modern  discoverer  of  the  incandescent 
light  or  moving  picture  could  have  been  more 
elated  over  the  success  of  his  plans  than  was 
this  experimenter  of  old  who  first  used  powder 
to  drive  a  missile  through  the  air  in  any  direction 
he  chose.  The  rocket  was  not  a  gun,  but  it  re- 
sembled the  gun  in  that  it  used  the  explosive 
power  of  powder  to  propel  a  missile  in  some 
definite  direction.  And  if  the  whole  truth  were 
known  we  should  probably  find  that  it  did  much 
to  inspire  that  vision  which  finally  led  to  the  dis- 
covery of  the  gun  itself. 

The  most  frequent,  though  probably  the  least 
important,  use  to  which  the  rocket  has  been  put 
all  through  the  ages  it  has  existed  is  that  of  pro- 
viding night  spectacles  to  delight  the  eye.  Most 
of  the  early  references  to  it  describe  the  awe  and 
wonder  it  created  in  the  minds  of  onlookers  who 
saw  it  at  public  exhibitions.  But  in  the  Orient 
in  times  long  ago  the  rocket  was  turned  to  account 
as  a  weapon  of  war.  Sent  rushing  into  the  ranks 
of  a  hostile  army,  scattering  fire  and  smoke,  it 


EARLY  USE  OF  POWDER  7 

served  well  to  frighten  horses  and  even  men,  to 
whom  it  seemed  a  product  of  black  magic.  When 
aimed  at  camp  or  besieged  town  it  carried  con- 
flagration and  destruction.  Europe  too  has  often 
since  used  the  rocket  for  similar  purposes.  As 
late  as  our  war  of  1812  the  British  fired  rockets 
amongst  the  men  of  Jackson's  army  at  the  Battle 
of  New  Orleans.  As  a  method  of  signaling  at 
night  the  rocket  still  plays  an  important  part, 
especially  at  sea,  and  on  the  modern  battle  front. 
The  soldier  even  uses  it  to  light  up  the  blasted 
"No  Man's  Land"  beyond  his  trenches,  thereby 
preventing  surprise  attacks  by  the  enemy.  No 
fireworks  display  even  in  our  day  is  complete 
without  its  thrilling  ascent.  The  very  age  of  this 
marvelous  contrivance  attests  the  fact  that  its 
ancient  inventor  by  producing  it  did  a  noteworthy 
thing. 

The  squib  fastened  to  a  stick,  however,  never 
succeeded  well  as  a  weapon.  Its  approach  was 
too  noisy  and  too  well  marked  to  strike  down 
an  alert  enemy,  for  avoidance  of  it,  except  at 
close  range,  was  always  comparatively  easy. 
Then  again  it  burned  too  much  powder  for  the 
work  obtained.  To  get  power  from  gas  there 
must  be  pressure  and  with  one  end  of  the  tube 
open  high  pressures  were  impossible.  So  the 


8  THE  GUN  BOOK 

rocket  has  never  been  able  to  compete  with  the 
more  efficient  gun  barrel  as  a  fighting  machine. 

Compared  with  the  ancient  rocket  the  gun  is 
still  a  sprightly  youth.  While  the  former,  using 
recoil  as  its  motive  power,  is  as  old  at  least  as 
the  Christian  Era,  the  fixed  tube  which  blows  a 
missile  from  its  mouth  has  seen  only  six  cen- 
turies of  existence.  The  step  from  the  one  prin- 
ciple to  the  other  seems  so  easy  and  simple  that 
we  wonder  why  men  were  so  long  in  catching  the 
idea.  While  it  is  probable  that  the  stationary 
tube  was  used  as  a  toy  before  Europe  called  it 
a  gun  and  began  to  use  it  as  a  weapon,  all  the 
evidence  we  have  indicates  that  the  gun  had  its 
birth  in  Europe  and  not  until  after  the  year 
1300  A.D. 

For  a  long  time  it  was  supposed  that  the  gun 
was  much  older  than  it  really  is.  But  the  art  of 
reading  history  has  advanced  as  much  as  any 
other  of  man's  accomplishments;  and  later,  more 
cautious  search  has  caused  us  to  change  our  views 
considerably  regarding  the  age  of  the  gun*  For 
instance,  the  words  artillery  and  gun  (artillerie 
and  gonne)  are  far  older  than  the  weapons  we 
know  by  those  names.  Originally  they  referred 
to  the  battering  rams  which  even  in  Old  Testa- 
ment times  were  used  to  break  down  walls;  and 


EARLY  USE  OF  POWDER  9 

also  to  those  huge  throwing  machines,  some  with 
levers  like  a  human  arm,  and  some  with  bows, 
by  which  heavy  stones  were  cast  in  battle  and 
siege.  When  firearms  came,  the  old  names  were 
borrowed  for  them  and  careless  writers  and 
readers  afterward  confused  the  two  classes  of 
weapons.  A  second  cause  of  confusion  in  tracing 
the  early  history  of  the  gun  lay  in  the  failure  to 
distinguish  between  mere  combustibles  and  gun- 
powder. The  throwing  of  burning  liquids,  solids, 
and  noxious  gases  into  the  ranks  of  an  enemy,  as 
is  now  being  done  in  Europe,  is  one  of  the  most 
ancient  of  warlike  resorts.  The  chief  differ- 
ences in  this  mode  of  attack  and  defense  are  in 
the  materials  used  and  the  methods  of  their  em- 
ployment, which  have  constantly  changed  from 
age  to  age. 

When  Alexander  the  Great  marched  into  India 
in  327  B.C.  his  army  was  assailed  with  burning 
compounds  of  pitch,  sulphur,  oil,  and  suchlike 
inflammables,  either  dropped  upon  the  soldiers' 
heads  from  city  walls,  or  tossed  into  their  ranks 
by  hand  and  with  machines.  When  the  Greeks 
came  home  they  also  began  to  use  the  same  stub- 
bornly burning  materials  in  their  European  wars. 
Hence  the  name  " Greek  fire"  by  which  all  war- 
like combustibles  thereafter  became  known. 


10  THE  GUN  BOOK 

Greek  fire  was  often  put  into  earthen  pots  or 
wooden  kegs,  ignited,  and  then  thrown.  There 
are  in  existence  a  number  of  accounts  of  battles 
in  which  these  blazing  missiles  are  described,  but 
we  do  not  now  make  the  mistake  of  supposing 
that,  because  machines  called  "  gonnes  "  propelled 
fiery  bodies  through  the  air,  it  was  guns  that  were 
being  used.  In  fact  the  earliest  guns  we  know 
about  were  entirely  too  small  in  caliber  to  be  used 
for  such  bulky  projectiles. 

Warriors  and  merchants  and  adventurers  who 
penetrated  the  Orient  both  before  and  after  Eu- 
rope began  to  use  guns  tell  us  about  finding  the 
natives  using  explosive  powder  and  fireworks 
made  from  it,  but  say  nothing  about  guns  being 
seen  there.  In  the  later  days  of  Rome's  glory, 
fireworks  of  explosive  powder  were  commonly  set 
off  in  that  city  for  the  entertainment  of  emperors 
and  populace;  but  no  mention  of  firearms  is 
found  in  the  records  of  that  period.  Neither  is 
it  likely  that  through  all  the  history  of  those  war- 
like times  guns  would  have  escaped  mention  if 
they  had  then  existed. 

But  the  most  convincing  evidence  we  have  that 
guns  were  not  known  in  Europe,  at  least  until 
after  the  year  1267,  is  that  in  that  year  the  Eng- 
lishman, Eoger  Bacon,  wrote  a  long  treatise  on 


EARLY  USE  OF  POWDER  11 

explosive  powder,  describing  its  manufacture  and 
the  uses  to  which  he  had  seen  it  put.  This  book 
we  have  today.  In  1233  Bacon,  a  young  priest, 
went  to  Paris  to  study,  and  there  learned  the 
art  of  making  the  explosive.  Being  especially 
interested  in  the  natural  sciences  he  spent  many 
years  in  France,  not  only  learning  what  the  people 
there  had  to  teach  about  his  favorite  subject,  but 
conducting  laborious  experiments  and  investiga- 
tions in  these  matters  on  his  own  account.  In 
1265  Bacon  was  again  in  England,  now  a  mature- 
minded  man,  no  longer  a  mere  seeker  for  the 
wisdom  of  others,  but  himself  a  great  teacher. 
In  that  year  the  good  Pope  Clement  directed  him 
to  write  in  full  all  the  facts  his  studies  had  re- 
vealed concerning  the  laws  of  nature,  with  which 
request  the  learned  priest  eagerly  complied.  He 
spent  nearly  two  years  at  the  task,  turning  out 
in  1267  a  bulky  manuscript  with  a  long  Latin 
title,  including  in  it  his  knowledge  of  explosive 
powder  and  describing  minutely  the  things  he  had 
seen  it  do. 

While  it  is  often  said  that  guns  were  used  by 
the  Moors  before  the  thirteenth  century,  the  writ- 
ings of  Bacon  seem  clearly  to  disprove  this.  We 
do  not  know  positively  that  he  visited  the  cities 
of  that  remarkable  Mohammedan  people  who  then 


12  THE  GUN  BOOK 

inhabited  most  of  the  lands  we  now  know  as 
Spain,  but  we  do  know  that  he  gave  special  study 
to  the  .Moorish  scientific  learning.  Of  this  his 
works  furnish  abundant  proof.  It  is  most  un- 
likely that  Bacon  would  have  overlooked  mention 
of  so  new  and  wonderful  a  weapon  as  the  gun, 
had  he  learned  of  its  existence  even  at  a  distance. 
Crackers,  squibs,  and  bombs  seem  to  be  the 
only  explosive  contrivances  of  which  Bacon  knew, 
or  thought  worth  describing.  But  aside  from 
those  things  he  had  actually  seen,  he  went  on 
in  prophecy  and  told  the  wonders  he  expected  ex- 
plosive powder  to  perform  in  the  future.  How 
sound  a  prophet  he  was  may  be  seen  when  he 
said  that  with  powder  as  a  motive  power,  '  *  There 
may  be  flying  machines,  so  made  that  a  man  may 
sit  in  the  middle  of  the  machine  and  direct  it  by 
some  device."  Again  he  expects  powder  to  move 
1 '  ships  that  may  travel  without  rowers  with 
greater  velocity  than  if  they  were  full  of  rowers ' ' ; 
and  also  "  wagons  that  may  be  moved  with  great 
speed."  All  these  things  have  come  to  pass  and 
by  the  aid  of  explosives  too,  as  Bacon  foretold, 
though  petroleum  and  not  gunpowder  turned  out 
to  be  the  best  means  for  the  purpose.*  When  a 

*  It    is    interesting    to    note   here    that    In    the    first    internal 
combustion  engines,  the  piston  was  driven  by  an  explosion  of 


EARLY  USE  OF  POWDER  13 

learned  man,  probably  the  wisest  and  most  open- 
minded  of  his  day,  goes  into  detail  of  expected 
future  events  like  these,  and  also  tells  us  that  he 
has  set  down  all  he  knows  about  powder  and  its 
works,  we  can  quite  safely  decide  that  he  never 
saw  or  heard  of  a  gun,  since  he  omits  reference 
to  it  entirely. 

This  negative  testimony  from  the  writings  of 
Bacon  is  further  strengthened  by  like  evidence 
from  the  books  of  Albertus  Magnus,  the  teacher 
of  Bacon,  who  also,  about  the  same  time,  wrote 
of  explosive  powder,  crackers,  squibs,  and  rockets. 
He  likewise  gives  details  of  these  instruments, 
but  his  writings  contain  no  word  or  even  hint  of 
guns.  Albertus,  too,  wrote  of  practically  every- 
thing he  knew  of  the  wonders  of  nature,  and  also 
of  some  things  he  did  not  know;  as,  for  instance, 
his  solemn  statement  that  he  had  often  seen  horse 
hairs  turn  into  snakes  when  immersed  in  water. 
With  these  two  earnest  men  silent  on  the  subject 
of  firearms  it  is  safe  to  say  that  there  were  no 
guns  in  Europe  at  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth 
century. 

So  far  as  we  know  the  gun  had  no  inventor. 
The  honor  has  been  ascribed  to  several,  but  their 

gunpowder  within  the  cylinder.  But  because  more  than  half  of 
the  products  of  the  burned  powder  remained  in  the  combustion 
chamber  as  solids,  the  device  could  not  be  made  practical. 


14  THE  GUN  BOOK 

title  to  it  has  not  borne  even  casual  scrutiny.  It 
seems  to  have  been  a  slow  growth,  perhaps  from 
a  preceding  toy  of  similar  form.  The  squib  of 
paper  or  wood,  if  made  fast,  would  shoot  a  stone 
a  little  distance.  Then  by  making  the  tube  larger 
and  stronger  some  man  or  men  saw  the  chance  to 
convert  an  interesting  plaything  into  a  dangerous 
weapon.  When  the  thing  was  done  they  called  it 
a  cannon. 

This,  if  it  happened  at  all,  took  place  prior  to 
1326;  for  in  that  year  the  Italian  Eepublic  of 
Florence,  as  its  records  show,  ordered  several 
metal  cannon,  including  balls  for  them,  to  be  made 
at  the  public  expense,  for  the  defense  of  the  state. 
Whether  these  guns  were  ever  turned  out  or  not 
is  not  told,  but  this  is  the  earliest  reliable  refer- 
ence to  firearms  that  has  yet  come  to  light  and 
shows  that  guns  had  then  passed  the  experimental 
stage  of  their  growth.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed 
that  a  nation  would  adopt  an  arm  that  had  not 
been  proved  to  some  extent  at  least,  so  we  must 
conclude  that  the  gun  graduated  from  the  roll  of 
toys  into  the  weapon  class  at  least  a  little  while 
before  the  year  1326. 

In  England  there  is  undoubted  evidence  of  the 
possession  and  use  of  guns  in  1327,  one  year  after 
the  Italian  guns  were  ordered ;  and  in  1338,  when 


EARLY  USE  OF  POWDER  15 

Edward  III  invaded  France,  lie  took  a  few  cannon 
and  their  ammunition  with  him.  We  are  left  with 
the  strong  conviction,  therefore,  that  the  gun  as 
a  weapon  sprang  into  use  during  the  period  be- 
tween 1267,  when  Roger  Bacon  wrote,  and  1326, 
when  the  Florentines  saw  its  merits  and  added 
ii  to  their  national  armament.  But  it  was  in  a 
great  battle  which  took  place  about  the  middle 
of  the  fourteenth  century  that  the  cannon,  the 
first  firearm,  made  its  formal  bow  to  the  world. 


CHAPTER  II 

BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  GUN 

THE  famous  Battle  of  Crecy,  fought  in  France 
in  1346,  between  the  French  and  an  invading  army 
of  English,  is  a  landmark  in  the  annals  of  the 
gun.  Though  the  part  played  by  the  new  instru- 
ment in  that  bloody  combat  was  a  very  modest 
one,  it  there  proved  the  right  of  firearms  to  a 
place  among  man's  warlike  weapons — a  place  to 
which  it  has  ever  since  held  fast. 

Crecy  was  the  real  beginning  of  the  Hundred 
Years'  War,  which  kept  all  France  desolate  for 
a  century,  and  even  brought  England  herself  to 
the  verge  of  ruin.  The  English  were  led  by  their 
king,  Edward  III,  a  bold,  headstrong  man,  ably 
assisted  by  his  young  son,  the  Black  Prince.  In 
1338  he  had  landed  on  the  shores  of  France  with 
an  army,  claiming  title  to  the  throne  of  that 
country,  and  according  to  French  stories  he  had 
with  him  some  cannon,  which  he  used  in  the  skir- 
mishes which  followed.  English  records  also 
show  that  guns  and  ammunition  were  shipped  to 

16 


BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  GUN  17 

France  in  that  year.  But  nothing  much  came  of 
that  expedition,  for  affairs  at  home  soon  caused 
its  abandonment. 

Eight  years  afterward,  however,  he  came  once 
more  with  more  guns  and  with  a  larger  and  better 
equipped  army  to  try  again  to  make  good  his 
claims.  Shortly  followed  the  Battle  of  Crecy,  in 
which  his  infantry  achieved  a  sweeping  victory 
over  the  mail-clad  cavaliers  of  France. 

The  cannon  which  Edward  brought  with  him 
and  trained  upon  his  foe  at  Crecy  were  probably 
small  in  size  and  few  in  number.  Of  them  we 
have  no  particulars,  nor  does  history  tell  how 
often  they  were  fired,  or  with  what  effect.  The 
French,  in  excuse  for  their  grievous  defeat,  said 
that  it  was  the  cannon  that  beat  them  and  that 
no  army  could  win  against  such  devilish  weapons ; 
but  this  was  not  the  truth,  as  the  events  of  the 
battle  clearly  show.  The  fighting  was  principally 
done  between  the  English  bowmen  and  French 
cavalry,  and  considering  the  many  charges  and 
counter-charges  made  across  the  battlefield  dur- 
ing the  fight,  the  clumsy,  short-ranged  little 
cannon  could  not  have  been  handled  quickly 
enough  to  do  much  damage.  It  is  altogether 
probable  that,  beyond  frightening  horses  and 
some  of  the  ignorant  Frenchmen,  Edward's  tiny 


18  THE  GUN  BOOK 

guns  accomplished  little.  The  French  defeat  was 
due  to  other  causes,  which  will  be  mentioned 
presently. 

This  small  beginning  made  by  the  English 
cannon  at  Crecy  was  but  a  prelude  to  the  part 
firearms  were  to  play  in  the  Hundred  Years '  War. 
The  French,  thus  assailed  by  the  new  and  fright- 
some  weapon,  quickly  overcame  their  scruples 
against  its  use.  They  not  only  armed  themselves 
with  artillery,  but  in  skill  in  making  and  using  it 
even  outstripped  their  Anglo-Saxon  enemies.  As 
the  war  went  on  year  in  and  year  out  the  gun 
grew  in  importance.  Its  size  and  power  increased 
rapidly.  The  powder  used  in  it  became  stronger 
and  more  reliable  and  the  gunners  themselves 
gained  in  confidence  and  dexterity.  From  being 
a  mere  maker  of  noise  and  smoke,  the  "fire  tube" 
entered  into  the  class  of  deadly  weapons. 

It  was  not  in  fighting  in  the  open  field,  how- 
ever, that  cannon  first  gained  the  soldier's  trust 
a'nd  affection.  It  was  too  slow  in  firing,  while 
pieces  small  enough  to  be  moved  about  were,  with 
the  weak  powder  of  that  day,  too  puny  to  be  of 
much  service.  They  were  carried  into  the  field, 
of  course,  but  were  only  expected  to  fire  a  shot 
or  two  at  the  beginning  of  a  contest  and  hastily 
retire,  making  room  for  the  infantry  and  cavalry 


BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  GUN  19 

whose  part  it  still  was  to  do  the  heavy  fighting. 
In  sieges  alone  the  early  guns  gave  real  efficiency. 

In  those  days  nearly  all  the  towns  in  France, 
as  in  the  rest  of  continental  Europe,  were  guarded 
by  strong  castles  or  were  surrounded  by  high  and 
heavy  walls,  to  protect  them  against  the  constant 
attacks  they  suffered  from  hostile  neighbors. 
Hence  warfare  then  consisted  largely  of  attacking 
and  defending  fortified  places.  At  this  work 
cannon  became  almost  supreme.  In  consequence 
they  grew  to  enormous  size,  sometimes  attaining 
a  bore  of  two  or  three  and  occasionally  of  four 
feet.  The  attacking  party  needed  heavy  balls  to 
batter  down  walls,  and  as  stone  was  the  principal 
ammunition  used,  instead  of  the  metal  of  our  day, 
projectiles  had  to  be  bulky  in  order  to  give  the 
necessary  weight.  The  battering  ram,  which  had 
hitherto  been  used  for  breaching  walls,  had  to  be 
operated  immediately  at  the  wall  itself,  exposing 
the  operators  to  fire  and  missile  from  above.  But 
the  cannon  could  be  set  up  at  a  safe  distance  and 
huge  balls  thrown  deliberately  at  a  section  of 
masonry  until  it  fell,  permitting  the  infantry  to 
rush  in.  With  the  coming  of  cannon,  therefore, 
the  ancient  ram  was  displaced  forever,  and  with 
it  went  stone  walls  as  defenses. 

While  the  defenders  of  a  besieged  city  used 


20  THE  GUN  BOOK 

smaller-sized  guns  swiveled  on  the  tops  of  their 
walls,  to  shoot  at  attackers,  they  also  used  tubes 
of  huge  bore.  Single  stones  from  the  wall  pieces 
could  do  little  to  check  a  determined  rush  of  in- 
fantry, but  a  tube  two  or  three  feet  in  diameter, 
filled  with  a  bushel  or  more  of  gravel  stones,  could 
scatter  death  broadcast  in  their  oncoming  ranks. 
The  defensive  side  therefore  also  found  the  big 
gun  best  for  its  heavy  work. 

Most  of  these  mammoth  guns  were  made  of 
wooden  staves  bound  with  bands  of  iron,  for  we 
must  remember  that  in  those  days  metals  of  all 
kinds  were  very  scarce  and  very  costly.  Being 
of  wood,  such  old-time  weapons  have  all  decayed, 
so  that  we  have  no  examples  of  their  workman- 
ship to  examine  now.  But  they  could  not  have 
been  very  strong  and  probably  did  not  throw  their 
projectiles  large  or  small  over  a  hundred  yards 
or  so;  whatever  distance  they  made  beyond  that 
was  perhaps  only  from  ricochet.  A  few  big  guns, 
however,  like  the  "Dardanelles"  and  "Mons 
Meg,"  were  made  of  metal  and  of  these  some 
remain  to  this  day  to  astonish  us  by  their  great 
dimensions. 

The  Hundred  Years'  War  dragged  on  through 
its  weary  course  of  battle  and  siege,  guns  both 
large  and  small  growing  constantly  in  importance 


BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  GUN  21 


FIG.  1.— THE  "MoNS  MEG"  (Edinburgh  Castle) 
Made  about  the  middle  of  the  15th  century,  this  huge  iron  gun 
remains  to  us  a  most  interesting  relic.  Its  bore  is  20  inches, 
though  the  powder  chamber  is  of  less  diameter  to  decrease 
the  bursting  effect  of  its  charge.  It  fired  balls  of  stone 
weighing  about  300  pounds. 


FIG.  2. — THE  "  DARDANELLES  "  BRONZE  GUN 

In  1867  the  Sultan  of  Turkey  presented  this  gun  to  Queen  Vic- 
toria. It  was  made  at  Constantinople  in  1468,  is  of  bronze, 
17  feet  lon^,  and  weighs  18  tons.  Its  bore  is  25  inches, 
with  the  powder  chamber  reduced  to  10  inches.  It  is  made 
in  two  sections  which  screw  together,  thereby  making  it 
more  portable.  Its  projectile  of  stone  weighed  over  500 
pounds. 


22  THE  GUN  BOOK 

and  becoming  more  and  more  commonplace  in  the 
minds  of  men  until  1427,  when  Joan  of  Arc  rode 
onto  the  scene  on  her  black  palfrey.  Taking  com- 
mand of  the  French  armies,  this  strange  and 
heroic  girl  warrior  inspired  her  beaten  and  dis- 
couraged countrymen  to  such  energy  and  deeds 
of  valor  that  the  English  invaders  were  soon 
forced  to  sue  for  peace.  Those  familiar  with 
Joan's  almost  miraculous  career  need  not  be  told 
of  the  great  part  which  firearms  played  in  her 
battles.  The  gun,  though  still  crude,  and  in  our 
eyes  inefficient,  had  by  that  time  gained  for  itself 
a  worthy  reputation  in  the  affairs  of  the  soldier. 

About  the  time  of  Joan  of  Arc  a  different  kind 
of  cannon  begins  to  appear  commonly — the  hand 
gun,  a  firearm  so  small  and  light  that  a  single 
man  can  carry  it  about  and  discharge  it  while 
holding  it  in  his  hands.  It  was  not  a  new  thing 
even  then,  for  here  and  there  all  through  the  later 
years  of  the  Hundred  Years'  War  these  tiny 
weapons  are  mentioned.  It  is  natural  for  us  to 
wonder  why  this  type  of  gun  did  not  sooner  come 
to  the  front,  for  it  clearly  had  many  points  to 
recommend  it.  For  the  cause  of  its  tardy  recog- 
nition we  shall  have  to  go  back  again  to  the  Battle 
of  Crecy  nearly  a  century  before. 

In  that  fight  the  French  used  cavalry  almost 


BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  GUN  23 

exclusively,  men  clad  in  armor,  riding  horses  also 
partly  encased  in  steel.  Up  to  that  time  the  war- 
fare of  the  Middle  Ages  had  been  principally 
carried  on  by  that  class  of  fighting  men.  Of  those, 
however,  the  English  had  few,  for  by  that  time 


FIG.  3. — EARLY  HAND  GUN 

A  diminutive  cannon  fastened  to  a  stick,  ignited  by  a  hot  wire. 
From  this  simple,  though  clumsy  weapon,  all  our  hand  guns 
are  descended. 

knighthood  had  largely  faded  out  of  England, 
and  then  too  the  transporting  of  many  horses 
across  the  Channel,  in  that  day  of  few  and  small 
ships,  was  too  difficult  to  be  attempted.  Edward 
therefore  was  forced  to  rely  on  foot-soldiers  to 
make  up  the  bulk  of  his  army.  But  these 
were  well-trained,  cool-headed  veterans  who  had 
learned  the  art  of  fighting  in  long  wars  with  their 
Scottish  neighbors.  They  were  outnumbered,  too, 


24  THE  GUN  BOOK 

more  than  four  to  one,  and  in  addition  to  that 
had  only  bows  and  arrows  to  oppose  the  lances 
and  horses  of  the  fiery  French  cavalry.  But  the 
result  of  the  battle  proved  not  only  that  their 
confidence  in  their  own  prowess  was  well  founded, 
but  that  their  simple  weapons  were  astonishingly 
superior  to  any  the  French  had,  or  ever  saw 
before. 

The  bows  and  arrows  then  common  in  conti- 
nental Europe  were  of  almost  no  value  against 
mailed  knights,  the  light  short  missiles  glancing 
off  harmlessly  from  both  man  and  horse.  The 
French  cavaliers  expected  therefore  to  charge 
the  despised  little  English  army  and  ride  them 
down,  as  they  had  always  before  done  in  opposing 
bow-armed  infantry.  But  a  rude  awakening  was 
in  store  for  these  haughty  cavaliers.  The  bow 
with  which  the  Englishman  was  armed  was  much 
longer  than  the  continental  weapon  of  that  class, 
its  regulation  length  being  the  height  of  the  man 
who  carried  it,  while  the  arrows  it  shot  were 
three  feet  in  length.  These  were  the  famous  long 
bow  and  cloth-yard  shaft  which  were  to  make 
history,  and,  incidentally  by  their  wonderful 
powers,  help  to  keep  the  hand  gun  in  the  back- 
ground for  centuries  after. 

Twelve  times  the  French  knights  valorously 


BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  GUN  25 

charged  the  English  line  at  Crecy,  each  time  to 
be  driven  back  with  great  slaughter.     The  long 


FIG.  4. — ENGLISH  LONG  BOWMAN 

The  supple  long  bow  with  its  string  drawn  far  back  gave  great 
impetus  to  the  arrow.  In  the  same  manner,  our  slow- 
burning  powder  propels  our  bullet  slowly  at  first  but  with 
increasing  speed.  Note  the  mallets  for  use,  and  even  being 
used,  in  despatching  the  enemy  wounded.  Before  the  gun 
came  the  holding  of  a  large  body  of  prisoners  was  so  difficult 
that  they  were  frequently  killed  in  droves  by  the  captors  as 
a  measure  of  self-defense. 

flexible  bow  of  the  Briton,  its  string  drawn  to 
the  archer's  ear,  discharged  its  heavy  shaft  with 


26  THE  GUN  BOOK 

such  speed  and  accuracy  that  the  armor  of  the 
charging  knight  was  pierced  through  and  through. 
After  each  onslaught  the  field  was  covered  with 
armored  men  pinned  inside  their  metal  plates, 
while  skewered  horses  charged  madly  about,  in- 
creasing the  dismay  and  confusion.  When  night 
came  the  French  drew  off  in  acknowledgment  of 
a  terrible  defeat  and  of  the  superiority  of  the 
long  bow  and  cloth-yard  shaft  over  lance  and 
horse  and  plates  of  steel. 

The  bowstring  of  the  English  weapon,  drawn 
back  through  a  long  distance,  stored  up  tre- 
mendous power,  as  compared  with  the  ordinary 
short  bow.  When  the  arrow  was  loosed  the  taut 
string  carried  it  forward  with  increasing  speed 
and  it  departed  with  higher  velocity  than  could 
be  given  it  by  any  short  bow  that  the  strength  of 
the  human  arm  could  bend.  This  same  principle 
will  appear  when  we  reach  the  subject  of  our  so- 
called  "smokeless  powder, "  for  it  achieved  for 
the  gun  what  the  long  bow  did  for  weapons  of  its 
class.  Both  are  examples  of  the  value  of  the 
long  thrust  over  the  short  sudden  stroke  in  pro- 
pelling a  missile. 

It  was  not  alone  the  range  and  power  of  the 
cloth-yard  shafts  that  won  for  them  their  reputa- 
tion, but  even  more  the  rapidity  with  which  they 


BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  GUN  27 

could  be  discharged.  It  is  said  that  a  skilled 
English  bowman  could  shoot  twenty  arrows  a 
minute  from  his  long  bow  and  aim  every  one. 
He  stuck  the  shafts  in  the  ground  in  front  of  him, 
and  by  long  training  could  reach  them,  place, 
and  shoot  them  without  taking  his  eyes  from  the 
target.  The  power  of  those  arrows  would  carry 
them  three  hundred  yards  and  knock  down  a  man 
or  horse  at  two  hundred.  Such  performances 
would  rank  well  even  in  our  day  of  repeating 
rifles.  It  is  not  strange,  then,  that  the  little  hand 
gun,  capable  of  being  fired  only  once  in  two  min- 
utes and  with  a  range  of  a  hundred  yards  or  less, 
had  a  hard  time  finding  men  to  use  it. 

At  the  Battle  of  Crecy,  furthermore,  still  an- 
other weapon  practically  new  to  Europe  made  its 
appearance — the  crossbow.  This  had  a  short, 
strong  bow  of  steel  fastened  to  a  stock,  its  bow- 
string drawn  back  by  a  small  windlass  at  the 
butt  and  released  by  a  trigger.  It  shot  a  short, 
heavy  arrow  called  a  "bolt"  with  range  and 
power  about  equal  to  the  cloth-yard  shaft.  The 
Crusaders  had  used  the  crossbow  in  their  wars 
against  the  Mohammedans  in  the  Holy  Land,  but 
until  1346  it  had  not  been  seen  on  European 
battle-fields.  To  help  them  against  the  English 
raiders,  the  French  had  hired  a  number  of  Ital- 


28  THE  GUN  BOOK 

ians,  mail-clad,  mounted,  and  armed  with  cross- 
bows. It  was  these  mercenaries  with  their  far- 
flying  and  hard-hitting  bolts  that  dealt  to  the 


FIG.  5. — CROSSBOW,  OB  ABBALEST 

The  strong  steel  bow  was  bent  by  means  of  the  windlass,  the 
'  weapon  being  simply  a  small  type  of  the  old  Roman  ballista. 
It  was  first  seen  in  Europe  at  the  Battle  of  Cr6cy  in  the 
hands  of  Italian  cavalry.  Cortez  used  it  with  effect  during 
his  conquest  of  Mexico.  It  was  a  bolt  from  one  of  these 
weapons  that  wounded  Joan  of  Arc  at  the  siege  of  Paris. 

Britons  the   severest  injuries  they  received  at 
Crecy. 

But  the  crossbow  was  too  slow  in  operation  to 
compete  well  with  the  English  weapon,  for  though 
it  had  the  power  and  accuracy,  only  about  one 
shot  per  minute  could  be  launched  from  it.  The 
preparatory  winding-up  process  made  it  far 
slower  in  operation  than  the  long  bow.  In  its 
favor,  however,  was  the  fact  that  its  stock  and 
trigger  allowed  accurate  aiming  even  in  the  hands 


BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  GUN  29 

of  a  novice,  while  the  skilled  English  bowman  was 
compelled  to  practise  from  boyhood  to  gain  com- 
mand of  his  weapon.  With  such  an  advantage 
in  its  favor  the  crossbow  from  the  date  of  Crecy 
on  became,  and  for  two  centuries  remained,  one 
of  the  standard  arms  in  every  European  army,  as 
well  as  a  favorite  weapon  of  private  citizen  and 
sportsman.  In  Great  Britain  alone  the  long  bow 
held  its  own  against  the  foreign  rival. 

The  hand  gun,  in  the  meantime,  though  greatly 
overshadowed  by  the  two  bow  weapons,  was  mak- 
ing slow  but  sturdy  growth  in  the  limited  duties 
allotted  to  it.  Its  bearers  in  armies  were  sentinels 
and  outpost  men,  the  discharge  of  whose  pieces 
gave  quick  warning  of  danger.  In  actual  combat 
these  were  stationed  on  the  army's  wings  and 
flanks  to  shoot  from  behind  cover,  for  when  at- 
tacked in  force  hand  gunners  could  do  little  to 
protect  themselves.  But  one  fact  standing  out 
prominently  in  the  history  of  warfare  from 
the  later  Middle  Ages  on  is  the  gradual  in- 
crease in  the  proportion  of  hand  guns  to  other 
small  arms,  until  they  finally  ousted  all  the 
rest. 

In  the  case  of  the  crossbow,  heavy  and  slow- 
shooting  as  it  was,  it  is  not  hard  to  see  why  the 
hand  gun  gained  ascendency,  but  military  and 


30  THE  GUN  BOOK 

other  students  of  arms  have  long  been  puzzled  as 
to  why  the  long  bow  in  time  surrendered  so  ab- 
jectly to  the  apparently  inferior  weapon.  Even 
at  the  time  of  our  Revolutionary  War,  when  arms 
and  ammunition  were  so  scarce  in  the  Colonies, 
Franklin  wrote  to  Charles  Lee,  who  was  then 
fortifying  the  port  of  New  York  City : 

But  I  still  wish  that  pikes  could  be  introduced,  and 
I  would  add  bows  and  arrows.  These  were  good 
weapons,  not  lightly  laid  aside : 

(1)  Because  a  man  may  shoot  as  truly  with  a  bow 
as  with  a  common  musket. 

(2)  He  can   discharge  four  arrows  in  the  time  of 
charging  and  discharging  one  bullet. 

(3)  His  object  is  not  taken  from  his  view  by  the 
smoke  of  his  own  side. 

(4)  A  flight  of  arrows,  seen  coming  upon  them,  ter- 
rifies   and    disturbs    the    enemies'    attention    to    their 
business. 

(5)  An  arrow  striking  in  any  part  of  a  man  puts  him 
hors-du-combat  till  it  is  extracted. 

(6)  Bows  and  arrows  are  more  easily  provided  every- 
where than  muskets  and  ammunition. 

When  a  level-headed  man  like  Franklin  could 
write  thus  as  late  as  1776,  we  may  be  sure  that 
the  hand  gun  had  some  virtue  not  readily  recog- 
nized that  gained  for  it  preeminence  over  the  bow. 
The  generally  accepted  view  is  that  the  gun  with 
its  fire  and  smoke  and  noise  created  fright  in  the 


BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  GUN  31 

hearts  of  an  enemy  being  fired  upon,  which  quali- 
ties were  wanting  in  the  bow;  that  these  things 
got  on  men's  nerves  and  made  them  want  to  run 
away  rather  from  panic  than  from  fear  of  the 
actual  destructive  powers  of  the  leaden  missiles. 
And  while  there  certainly  is  much  truth  in  this 
theory,  other  and  different  factors  too  often  for- 
gotten must  at  the  same  time  be  considered. 

Among  our  American  Indians,  one  of  the 
most  enjoyed  games  of  the  boys  was  to  stand  off 
fifty  yards  or  so  and  shoot  blunt-headed  arrows 
at  each  other,  the  fun  for  both  players  and  on- 
lookers being  in  the  antics  of  the  human  target 
in  avoiding  the  well-aimed  shafts.  Seldom,  if 
ever,  did  an  arrow  strike  its  mark.  At  times 
the  older  youths,  wanting  more  hazard  in  their 
sport,  would  exchange  shots  with  arrows  steel- 
pointed  and  razor-sharp.  So  skilful  were  these 
fellows  in  judging  an  arrow's  course  that  by  a 
single  step  to  one  side  or  by  merely  standing 
still  the  deadly  missile  was  cheated  and  whizzed 
innocently  past.  The  same  dangerous  pastime 
was  also  indulged  in  with  tomahawks  and  knives 
instead  of  bows  and  arrows,  but  always  with  the 
same  harmless  results.  The  writer  has  often  wit- 
nessed these  games  and  has  at  times  taken  part 
in  them,  but  never  saw  an  injury  occur.  Is  it 


32  THE  GUN  BOOK 

not  probable,  therefore,  that  a  few  minutes'  ob- 
servation of  these  Indian  boys  at  play  would 
convince  military  critics  that  the  bullet,  even 
though  short-ranged  and  inaccurate  compared 
with  the  arrow,  had  advantages  other  than  ac- 
companying smoke  and  noise?  It  is  invisible. 
There  is  no  dodging  of  it.  The  arrow  can  be 
seen  and  avoided,  but  the  man  in  front  of  a  gun, 
and  within  range,  is  helpless  after  the  missile 
starts  on  its  way. 

Of  course  when  arrows  were  shot  in  great  num- 
bers, dodging  them  was  out  of  the  question,  but 
this  situation,  even  to  the  soldier  in  war,  was 
infrequent  compared  with  the  many  other  occa- 
sions when  the  threatened  man,  seeing  a  shaft 
or  two  approaching  him,  could  avoid  injury  by 
changing  his  position.  How  can  we  doubt,  there- 
fore, that  the  ability  to  fly  to  its  mark  unseen 
was  the  bullet's  chief  advantage  in  its  contest 
against  the  arrow! 

The  bullet  was  superior  to  the  arrow,  too,  in 
another  vital  respect;  it  was  less  affected  in  its 
flight  by  cross  winds.  The  arrow,  while  present- 
ing only  a  small  area  to  the  atmosphere  in  its 
forward  progress,  presented  a  large  surface  to 
winds  coming  at  it  from  the  side  or  at  an  angle. 
The  bowman,  therefore,  had  to  estimate  the 


BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  GUN  33 

probable  extent  of  deflection  by  the  wind  and 
allow  for  it  in  aiming.  This  introduced  an  ele- 
ment of  guesswork  practically  insurmountable. 
The  bullet  of  course  felt  the  effect  of  cross  winds 
in  its  flight,  but  in  far  less  degree  than  the  long 
wooden  shaft. 

The  earliest  hand  gun  was  a  simple  tube  of 
iron  or  bronze  fastened  to  a  stick,  by  which  it 
was  held.  The  firer  seems  to  have  held  the 
weapon  with  one  hand,  the  stick  passing  under 
his  arm,  the  free  hand  being  used  only  to  apply 
igniting  fire.  The  recoil  of  this  crude  hand 
cannon  must  have  been  severe  even  with  weak 
charges,  for  the  bore  was  large  in  proportion  to 
its  weight;  and  the  projectiles,  to  fill  the  tube, 
had  to  be  of  substantial  size.  To  meet  the  shock 
of  recoil  the  shape  of  the  wooden  piece  was  soon 
changed,  its  butt  end  being  made  short  and  broad, 
which  permitted  its  being  placed  against  breast 
or  thigh  in  firing,  thus  using  the  body  to  resist 
the  backward  thrust. 

The  first  great  change  appeared  in  the  form 
of  the  hand  gun  shortly  before  Columbus  sailed 
for  America,  when  the  stock  was  bent  and  its 
length  increased  to  allow  firing  from  the  shoulder. 
This  was  the  "hack-butt"  or  "hack-bush,"  mean- 
ing "hook  gun,"  which  the  French  afterward 


THE  GUN  BOOK 


FIG.  6. — EARLY  TYPES  OF  STOCKS 

Used  on   arquebus   and   musket.     They   include  both   wheel-lock 
and  snaphance  igniters. 


BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  GUN  35 

named  the  arquebuse,  the  word  "arque"  being 
the  French  equivalent  for  "hook,"  or  "hack,"  as 
the  Germans  pronounced  it.  So  valuable  was  the 
curving  stock  which  distinguished  the  arquebuse 
that  we  use  it  today  and  count  it  one  of  the 
greatest  inventions  relating  to  hand  gunnery,  be- 
cause it  not  only  permits  the  firer  to  get  his  eye 
down  parallel  with  the  barrel  for  sighting,  but 
another  benefit  conferred  by  it,  one  probably  un- 
foreseen by  its  originators,  is  that  it  has  the 
peculiar  effect  of  softening  the  shock  of  recoil 
against  the  body.  How  this  comes  about  we  shall 
see  in  a  later  chapter. 

The  arquebuse  quickly  displaced  the  simple 
hand  cannon  that  preceded  it,  and  down  to  the 
middle  of  the  sixteenth  century  remained  the 
standard  small  firearm.  It  was  generally  about 
three  feet  long  over  all,  had  a  bore  of  about  three- 
quarters  of  an  inch,  and  weighed  about  ten  pounds. 
Its  range  could  not  have  been  over  a  hundred 
yards,  while  a  shot  in  two  minutes  was  a  fair 
average  of  its  rapidity  in  firing.  Hunters  used  it 
a  little,  and  in  every  army  a  few  arquebusiers 
were  present;  but  the  sword,  pike,  and  arrow 
were  the  chief  military  weapons  through  all  the 
days  of  the  arquebuse. 

Not  until  about  1540  did  the  hand  gun  become 


36  THE  GUN  BOOK 

a  very  formidable  weapon.  It  was  then  that  the 
Spaniards  produced  the  arm  they  called  the 
"moschetto,"  after  a  small  hawk,  which  name 
has  come  down  to  us  in  the  word  musket.  The 


FIG.  7. — SPANISH  MUSKETEER,  16TH  CENTURY 

The  Spanish  musket  was  of  large  bore  and  very  heavy.     It  was 

the  parent  of  our  modern  rifle.     Note  the  soldier's  bandolier 

with   cartridges   attached;    also   his   sword,   to   be   used   for 

fighting  at  close  quarters.    The  match  is  held  in  the  left  hand. 


Spanish  musket  departed  widely  from  the  arque- 
buse,  though  principally  in  size.  Instead  of  being 
a  mere  yard  in  length,  weighing  ten  or  twelve 
pounds,  the  new  arm  was  from  six  to  seven  feet 
long  and  weighed  forty  or  fifty  pounds.  Two 
men  were  required  to  use  it  to  best  advantage; 
while  a  necessary  part  of  its  equipment  was  a 


BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  GUN  37 

forked  stick,  upon  which  to  rest  its  ponderous 
barrel  in  firing.  Loading  it,  of  course,  was  slow, 
and  accuracy  was  not  one  of  its  assets;  but  in 
power  and  range  it  was  a  weapon  not  to  be 
lightly  regarded. 

In  outward  form  our  gun  of  today  is  prac- 
tically a  copy  of  the  Spanish  musket,  reduction  in 
size  being  the  principal  alteration  in  its  general 
appearance.  Better  workmanship  and  stronger 
metal  in  the  next  three  hundred  years  made  the 
musket  a  lighter,  more  accurate  gun,  but  the  bore 
never  became  less  than  about  three-quarters  of 
an  inch ;  while  the  effective  range  remained  about 
the  same  as  that  of  the  old  Spanish  weapon,  two 
hundred  yards  or  less. 

As  it  is  our  design  in  this  book  to  treat  of 
general  principles  rather  than  to  make  a  cata- 
logue of  ancient  relics,  we  must  here  ignore  many 
of  the  curious  and  interesting  firearms  and  at- 
tachments produced  during  the  early  centuries. 
These  experimental  guns  and  devices  varied  in 
all  possible  respects,  as  inventors  tried  out  this 
or  that  idea,  which  was  frequently  ingenious  and 
possessed  of  worthy  features,  though  adding 
nothing  in  the  end  to  the  development  of  the 
standard  gun. 

Besides   bending   its   stock   and  lessening   its 


38  THE  GUN  BOOK 

weight  and  size,  the  only  notable  changes  made 
in  the  hand  gun  from  its  earliest  days  down  to 
about  1800  were  in  the  methods  of  ignition.  Of 
these  there  were  several  of  great  importance, 
which  will  be  viewed  in  detail  in  the  next  chapter. 


CHAPTER  III 

PROGRESS  IN  IGNITION 

no  part  of  the  gun  has  more  thought  and 
labor  been  expended  than  upon  the  means  of 
touching  off  the  charge  after  the  weapon  is 
loaded.  Indeed,  for  the  first  three  or  four  cen- 
turies this  seems  to  have  been  the  chief  subject 
over  which  gun  inventors  pondered,  and  it  was 
here  that  they  gained  the  most  ground  in  over- 
coming the  difficulties  with  which  nature  has 
beset  firearms  from  the  beginning. 

It  is  likely  that  the  very  birth  of  the  gun  was 
delayed  by  the  failure  to  solve  the  puzzle  of 
getting  fire  into  the  powder  charge  behind  the 
projectile.  Support  is  given  this  view  by  the 
recent  finding  of  ancient  cannon  which  had 
apparently  no  means  of  ignition  other  than  by 
a  train  of  powder  leading  in  at  the  muzzle,  and 
past  a  loosely  fitting  projectile.  While  the  making 
of  a  small  hole  at  the  breech,  through  which  only 
a  comparatively  slight  proportion  of  the  whole 
body  of  gas  could  escape,  seems  a  ridiculously 

39 


40  THE  GUN  BOOK 

simple  contrivance,  the  same  can  be  said  of  any 
invention  after  it  is  made.  As  an  example  of 
this  truth,  consider  how  many  thousands  of  years 
the  world  waited  vainly  for  a  machine  that  would 
sew  cloth,  until  Elias  Howe  accomplished  the  fact, 
chiefly  by  transferring  the  eye  of  the  needle  from 
its  blunt  end  to  a  place  near  its  point.  At  any 
rate,  the  existence  of  those  old  ventless  cannon 
proves  the  interesting  fact  that  their  makers  did 
not  know  of  or  did  not  have  faith  in  ignition 
through  a  small  hole  in  the  breech  of  the  piece. 
Furthermore,  the  relationship  between  cannon 
and  squib  is  made  clear  because  both  were  ignited 
in  the  same  way,  that  is,  from  the  open  end  of 
the  powder  tube. 

As  for  the  hand  gun,  however,  the  first  ones 
were  fired  by  means  of  the  vent  at  the  breech, 
through  which  a  heated  wire  was  inserted.  So 
far  as  simplicity  and  certainty  are  concerned  this 
was  the  best  mode  of  ignition  ever  devised,  not 
even  excepting  our  own  method  by  use  of  the 
percussion  primer.  The  igniting  heat  was  car- 
ried directly  to  the  place  where  it  was  wanted, 
without  any  intermediate  step  or  complication, 
thus  avoiding  the  aggravating  misfires  which 
were  the  bane  of  gunners  from  the  time  the  hot 
wire  was  abandoned  down  almost  to  our  day. 


PROGRESS  IN  IGNITION  41 

This  trouble  we  are  practically  free  from,  though 
only  through  the  use  of  firing  apparatus  which 
is  costly  and  produced  only  by  skilled  hands  and 
delicate  machinery. 

But  the  hot  wire  was  subject  to  the  obvious 
objection  that,  unless  a  fire  were  handy  in  which 
to  heat  it,  the  whole  gun  became  useless  and  its 
bearer  remained  practically  unarmed.  For  hand 
gunners  who  were  expected  to  move  about  the 
maintaining  of  this  fire  was  troublesome  at  best 
and  frequently  impossible.  Cannoneers,  however, 
did  not  find  the  obstacle  so  serious,  for  their 
pieces  were  more  or  less  stationary  even  in  bat- 
tle, which  permitted  the  keeping  of  a  convenient 
blaze  with  wires  or  rods  of  iron  constantly  red 
hot.  Hence  this  mode  of  ignition  was  used 
successfully  with  artillery  long  after  the  hand 
gunner  had  found  another  and,  for  his  purposes, 
a  more  satisfactory  device. 

About  the  year  1500  the  wire  igniter  was  dis- 
carded for  small  arms,  being  succeeded  by  the 
"match,"  which  was  really  a  fuse  made  of  a 
piece  of  twisted  hemp  or  tow  four  or  five  feet 
long,  soaked  in  saltpeter  solution,  and  dried.  The 
match  ends,  when  lighted,  smoldered  for  an  hour 
or  more,  keeping  a  live  coal  ready  for  use,  and 
a  number  of  them  in  succession  would  burn  for 


42  THE  GUN  BOOK 

an  entire  day  if  required,  though  in  rainy 
weather  the  keeping  of  the  match  alight  was  prac- 
tically impossible,  at  which  times  hand  gunners 
took  an  enforced  vacation.  There  have  been  bat- 
tles where  the  tide  of  success  was  turned  by  an 


FIG.  8. — THE  MATCH-LOCK 

An  old  form  of  gun  lock  in  which  a  "  match  "  in  the  form  of  a 
twisted  cord  of  tow  or  hemp,  soaked  in  saltpeter  solution 
and  dried,  was  used  for  firing  the  priming. 

oncoming  shower  which  wet  the  matches  of 
the  soldiery  and  put  them  temporarily  out  of 
action. 

Aside  from  its  uselessness  when  wet,  the  match 
brought  with  it  other  tribulations  not  known  in 
the  days  of  the  hot  wire,  to  vex  and  disappoint 
the  gunner.  The  vent-hole  in  the  breech  of  the 
gun  had,  of  course,  to  be  kept  small,  or  else  ruin- 
ous gas  leakage  would  occur,  and  in  the  use  of 
the  wire  the  small  vent  was  no  objection.  To 
make  the  orifice  large  enough  to  admit  the  end  of 
a  thick  fuse  into  the  powder  charge  would  have 


PROGRESS  IN  IGNITION  43 

given  the  gas  opportunity  to  waste  its  strength 
at  the  breech.  As  the  vent  had  therefore  to  be 
kept  small  at  all  cost,  the  plan  adopted  was  to 
form  on  the  top  of  the  gun  barrel  a  bowl-like 
depression  called  a  "pan,"  from  the  bottom  of 
which  the  vent  led  down  into  the  powder  charge 
below.  Into  this  ^pan  the  gunner,  in  preparing 
for  his  shot,  poured  a  little  fine  powder,  called 
priming  powder,  some  of  which  dropped  into  the 
vent  connecting  with  the  charge.  When  the  match 
end  touched  the  priming  in  the  pan  there  was  a 
flash,  the  flame  following  down  the  powder-filled 
vent,  discharging  the  piece. 

This  process  is  described  rather  fully  because 
that  tiny  train  of  priming  powder  in  the  vent-hole, 
simple  and  unerring  as  it  would  seem  to  be  on 
mere  inspection,  brought  the  gun  into  more  dis- 
repute through  five  centuries  of  its  existence  than 
any  other  feature  connected  with  it.  Throughout 
all  the  firing  devices  we  are  now  about  to  ex- 
amine, this  minute  but  important  train  of  ex- 
plosive is  present,  though  so  constantly  failing 
to  work  that  up  to  a  century  ago  it  was  a  lucky 
hand  gunner  whose  weapon  did  not  misfire  more 
than  once  in  ten  shots.  If  the  priming  had  al- 
ways formed  an  unbroken  column  from  the  pan  to 
the  powder  charge,  of  course  a  misfire  would  have 


THE  GUN  BOOK 


0  g> 


PROGRESS  IN  IGNITION  45 

been  practically  impossible,  but  its  continuity  was 
being  constantly  broken  either  by  failure  of  the 
priming  to  fill  the  hole  completely,  or  by  the 
accumulation  of  powder  ash  in  the  orifice  which 
choked  it  up.  The  result  was  that  unless  extreme 
care  were  taken  in  the  preparation  of  every  shot 
the  gunner  never  could  be  sure  whether  or  not 
his  weapon  would  go  off. 

The  unreliable  qualities  of  this  little  powder 
column  have  played  an  important  part  in  his- 
tory. In  1745  the  great  Olive,  sick  and  de- 
spondent in  India,  twice  snapped  a  flint-lock 
pistol  at  his  head  and,  failing  to  make  it  go 
off,  decided  to  give  life  another  trial,  with  the 
result  that  his  further  career  probably  saved 
India  to  the  British  Empire.  Again,  in  our  Revo- 
lutionary War,  Washington  once  escaped  with 
his  life  because  a  British  soldier's  musket  missed 
fire  and  without  our  great  Revolutionary  leader 
we  might  have  remained  a  British  province. 
Even  in  the  days  of  percussion  caps  the  evil  of 
misfires  continued,  as  will  be  recalled  by  those 
familiar  with  Parkman's  California  and  Oregon 
Trail,  wherein  he  describes  his  chagrin  at  hav- 
ing his  weapon  fail  him  from  this  cause,  while 
hunting  buffalo  on  the  plains.  It  is  only  by  such 
recollections  as  these  that  we  are  made  to  ap- 


46  THE  GUN  BOOK 

predate  duly  the  great  boon  we   enjoy  in  our 
present,  practically  infallible  ignition. 

Until  late  in  the  fifteenth  century  the  gunner 
held  his  weapon  in  one  hand  and  touched  it  off 
with  a  match  held  in  the  other.  Shortly  before 
Columbus  sailed  for  the  Indies,  however,  a  great 
improvement  was  made  over  this  crude  system  of 
manipulation.  The  match  was  fastened  to  a  large 
hook  pivoted  to  the  side  of  the  gun,  the  lower  end 
serving  as  a  trigger  by  which  the  nose  of  the 
hook  carrying  the  lighted  match  could  be  thrown 
down  into  the  priming-pan.  The  obvious  value 
of  this  contrivance  was  to  allow  the  gunner  to 
support  the  weapon  with  both  hands,  effecting 
the  ignition  by  a  finger,  instead  of  a  whole  arm 
and  hand.  At  first  the  hook  was  placed  in  front 
of  the  pan,  though  its  position  was  afterward  at 
the  rear  of  it.  Then  the  pan  itself  was  shifted 
from  the  top  of  the  barrel  to  its  side,  where  the 
priming  powder  it  contained  gained  better  pro- 
tection from  wind,  always  before  that  a  serious 
detriment  in  blustery  weather.  From  its  resem- 
blance to  a  snake's  head  and  neck,  the  hook  de- 
rived the  name,  "serpentine,"  which  title  soon 
became  not  only  a  common  name  for  the  weapon 
thus  equipped,  but  also  for  the  dust-like  powder 
of  those  days  used  both  in  small  arms  and  cannon. 


PROGRESS  IN  IGNITION  47 

We  must  be  careful,  therefore,  in  reading  all  writ- 
ings about  the  gun,  for  the  name  serpentine  ap- 
plied to  three  separate  and  distinct  things.  The 
better  name  for  the  gun  with  hook  and  trigger, 
and  the  one  best  known,  is  "match-lock,"  describ- 
ing its  means  of  ignition,  which  remained  the 
standard  firing  system  until  well  into  the  seven- 
teenth century. 

During  all  the  intervening  time,  however,  men 
remained  satisfied  with  the  match-lock  only  be- 
cause they  had  nothing  better  in  its  place.  The 
keeping  of  the  match  alight  through  rain  or  storm 
was  a  great  care  even  when  possible  at  all,  and 
in  those  days  fire  was  so  difficult  to  obtain  that 
even  the  first  lighting  of  the  match  was  not  easy. 
As  stone  and  steel  struck  together  were  then  the 
original  source  of  all  combustion,  an  unknown 
German,  about  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, decided  that  if  he  could  arrange  these  ma- 
terials so  as  to  strike  fire  directly  into  the  pan 
of  his  gun,  instead  of  first  lighting  a  fuse  for  the 
purpose,  he  could  thereby  eliminate  the  trouble- 
some match  altogether.  He  tried  it  and  suc- 
ceeded, producing  the  wheel-lock.  * 

This  device  was  regarded  as  extremely  com- 
plicated in  its  day,  and  even  seems  somewhat  so 
to  us  when  explained  in  writing,  though  the  prin- 


48  THE  GUN  BOOK 

ciple  upon  which  it  worked  can  be  readily  under- 
stood by  any  one  who  has  seen  sparks  fly  from 
a  dry  grindstone  when  a  steel  tool  is  held  against 


Courtesy  of  the  Century  Company 

FIG.  10. — THE  WHEEL-LOCK 

a,  Lock  plate,  supporting  all  the  lock  mechanism;  &,  wheel,  with 
grooves  of  V-section  to  form  circumferential  edges;  c,  chain 
connecting  the  axle  of  6  with  the  extremity  of  the  mainspring 
d;  e,  trigger ;  /,  flash-pan ;  g,  the  serpentine  holding  the  flint ; 
h,  spring  which  presses  the  flint  upon  the  wheel  in  firing, 
or  holds  it  away  when  winding  up  the  lock;  k,  sear  and 
sear-spring,  the  sear  engaging  the  wheel  by  a  short  stud 
entering  recesses  in  the  side  of  the  wheel;  i,  wrench,  fitted 
to  the  axle  of  6,  for  winding  up  the  chain,  and  having  a 
hollow  handle  for  measuring  out  the  priming  powder. 

its  face.  In  the  wheel-lock,  however,  the  stone 
itself  did  not  revolve,  but  a  rough-edged  wheel 
of  steel  spun  against  it,  driven  by  a  spring.  A 
key  wound  it  up,  and  when  the  trigger  was  pulled 
the  stone  (pyrites),  attached  to  a  lever,  came 


PROGRESS  IN  IGNITION  49 

down  into  the  pan,  pressing  against  the  wheel, 
which  protruded  upward  into  the  pan  from  below. 
Thus  sparks  were  produced  in  the  pan  itself, 
where  lay  the  priming  powder,  and  when  it 
flashed  the  gun  went  off. 

But  the  wheel-lock  was  too  costly  and  too  frail 
to  win  a  large  place  in  warfare — then  the  prin- 
cipal use  made  of  guns.  The  average  soldier  in 
that  day  was  unfamiliar  with  machinery  of  every 
kind,  and  the  springs  and  levers  of  the  new  de- 
vice were  more  than  he  could  manage  and  keep 
in  working  trim.  Yet  in  spite  of  its  defects,  Gus- 
tavus  Adolphus  armed  a  large  number  of  his  men 
with  these  weapons,  obtaining  good  service  from 
them,  and  at  the  same  time  they  became  almost 
instantly  popular  with  those  in  private  life  who 
wanted  guns  for  self-protection.  Furthermore, 
with  the  coming  of  the  wheel-lock,  hunting  with 
guns  may  be  said  to  have  begun — one  of  the  chief 
uses  ever  since  for  firearms. 

There  was  one  position  in  all  European  armies 
of  that  time  where  the  wheel-lock,  and  the  snap- 
hance  which  grew  up  practically  alongside  of  it, 
had  peculiar  value.  This  was  in  connection  with 
artillery  and  artillerists.  The  heavy  guns  were 
commonly  handled  by  laborers  who  were  not 
soldiers  at  all  but  were  picked  up  wherever  they 


50  THE  GUN  BOOK 

were  handiest,  bound  and  forced,  usually  against 
their  will,  into  the  fight.  A  chief  gunner  and  a 
few  apprentices  in  control  commanded  these 
"roustabouts,"  as  we  should  call  them,  but  when 
a  battle  began  they  had  to  be  unbound  and  some 
one  had  to  help  keep  the  poor  fellows  from  run- 
ning away.  Hence  with  every  train  of  artillery 
was  a  squad  of  guards,  whose  duty  it  was  to  keep 


FIG.  11. — THE  SNAPHANCE 

the  frightened  crew  at  work  and  to  shoot  them 
down  if  they  tried  to  escape.  Thus  also  grew 
up  the  marine  corps  on  shipboard. 

As  it  was  necessary  when  in  action  to  keep  open 
powder  barrels  standing  around  the  guns,  and 
even  customary  through  a  long  period  actually 
to  mix  the  powder  ingredients  on  the  battle-field, 
soldiers  with  lighted  matches  were  dangerous 
companions.  When  the  powder  was  being  mixed, 
too,  it  gave  off  a  dust  that  was  highly  inflammable. 
Thus  the  desirability  of  the  stone  and  steel 
igniting  devices  for  muskets  of  the  guards  is  ap- 


PROGRESS  IN  IGNITION  51 

parent.  These  squads  immediately  adopted  the 
new  arm,  and  from  them  as  a  nucleus  the  use  of 
the  friction  igniter  gradually  spread  until  the 
smoldering  match  was  elbowed  out  entirely. 

The    "  snaphance,"    which    appeared    shortly 
after  the  wheel-lock,  and  the  flint-lock  were  really 


Courtesy  of  the  Century  Company. 

FIG.  12. — THE  FLINT-LOCK 

one  and  the  same,  the  latter  being  only  an  im- 
proved form  of  the  other.  In  them  a  piece  of 
rough-faced  steel  sloped  down  into  the  pan,  while 
the  stone,  pyrites  in  the  first  and  flint  in  the  latter, 
was  snapped  down  against  it  with  a  scraping 
action,  throwing  sparks  into  the  priming  powder. 
In  the  final  form  taken  on  by  the  flint-lock  the 
steel  scraper  became  part  of  a  cover  which  pro- 
tected the  pan  from  wind  and  dampness,  and 
which  the  flint  pushed  up  as  it  came  down.  The 
flint-lock  proper,  which  came  into  common  use 


52  THE  GUN  BOOK 

shortly  prior  to  1700,  lived  and  gave  good  service 
for  a  hundred  and  fifty  years,  though  when  the 
chemist  gave  us  the  percussion  cap  in  1830  it 
began  slowly  to  disappear.  With  it  were  fought 
our  French  and  Indian  Wars,  as  well  as  those  of 
the  Revolution  and  of  1812.  Even  as  late  as  1880 
the  writer  has  seen  flint-locks  carried  and  used 
on  the  northwestern  frontier,  mostly  in  the  hands 
of  Indians  from  the  wilds  of  Canada.  In  secluded 
districts  in  our  Southern  states  the  ancient  arm 
is  still  carried  by  old  backwoodsmen,  who  con- 
tinue to  find  virtue  in  it,  chiefly  because  a  flint 
can  be  picked  up  almost  anywhere,  while  for  caps 
or  cartridges  a  store  must  be  sought.  This  great 
advantage  kept  flint-locks  in  the  hands  of  the 
frontiersmen  long  after  the  caps  were  introduced, 
though  as  the  country  settled  up  this  reason 
failed  and  the  flint-lock  is  now  only  a  relic. 

NOTE: 

The  following  extract  from  a  list  of  arms  sent  from 
England  to  Plymouth,  published  in  the  Records  of 
Massachusetts,  volume  1,  page  6,  gives  an  excellent 
description  of  the  arms  (as  well  as  of  the  spelling)  of 
the  early  colonists: 

1628  A.D. 

Armes  ffor  100  men. 

80  Bastard  musketts  wth  snaphances,  4  foote  in  the 
barril,  without  rests. 


PROGRESS  IN  IGNITION  53 

06  longe  ffowling  peeces  with  bastard  muskett  boare, 
6  foote  longe. 

4  longe  ffowling  peeces  with  bastard  muskett  boare 
5%  foote  longe. 

10  fful  musketts,  4  foote  in  the  barril  with  match 
cocks  and  rests. 

90  bandoleeres  for  the  musketts,  ech  wth  a  bullet  bag. 

10  Home  fflasks,  for  the  longe  ffowling  peeces  to 
hould  a  X  apeece. 

(The  "ffull  muskett  boare"  was  about  one  inch.  The 
bastard  bore  was  about  one-fourth  smaller.) 


CHAPTER  IV 

ABOUT  GUNPOWDER 

IN  an  ancient  writing  on  the  art  of  gunnery  we 
read  that:  "A  cannoneer  must  always  love  and 
serve  God,  for  every  time  he  fires  a  gun  or  makes 
powder,  he  may  be  killed."  Whether  we  agree 
with  this  reasoning  or  not,  the  statement  calls  to 
our  attention  two  facts  of  interest — the  occupa- 
tion of  a  gunner  was  a  hazardous  one,  and  in 
addition  to  his  duty  to  train  and  fire  his  guns  on 
the  enemy,  he  was  also  a  maker  of  powder. 

It  will  be  noticed,  too,  that  this  old  writer  does 
not  mention  the  danger  of  being  killed  by  the 
enemy's  shot;  it  is  his  own  creations  he  most 
fears.  And  it  did  take  a  brave  man  to  be  a  gunner 
in  those  perilous  days,  when  faulty  cannon  burst 
without  warning  and  defective  powder  would  ex- 
plode fiercely  at  one  shot,  and  perhaps  fail  even 
to  drive  the  projectile  from  its  tube  at  the  next. 
James  II  of  Scotland  was  blown  up  while  watch- 
ing a  cannon  being  tested.  As  we  are  following 

54 


ABOUT  GUNPOWDER  55 

the  course  of  the  hand  gun  and  not  that  of  the 
cannon,  we  are  interested  in  this  old-time  hero 
only  as  he  filled  his  function  of  official  powder 
maker  of  his  army.  On  him  the  arquebusier  and 
musketeer  for  many  years  relied  for  their  dole 
of  explosives. 

For  the  first  three  hundred  years  of  the  gun's 
existence,  cannoneers  all  belonged  to  a  secret  so- 
ciety much  like  a  union,  the  principal  objects  of 
which  were  to  keep  wages  up,  to  guard  from  the 
public  the  secrets  of  the  art  they  followed, 
and  to  exchange  information  among  themselves. 
They  were  not  soldiers  and  did  not  wear  uni- 
forms, their  sole  badge  of  office  being  the  leathern 
apron  they  wore  when  mixing  powder.  Appren- 
tices were  admitted  to  the  union  and  allowed  to 
advance  through  several  "degrees"  until  they 
finally  achieved  the  high  honor  of  "master  gun- 
ners." 

But  as  none  of  these  men  had  the  slightest 
knowledge  of  the  basic  principles  of  gunpowder, 
it  is  not  surprising  that  the  art  of  gunnery  ad- 
vanced so  slowly.  Some  of  them  claimed  for  their 
powder  the  virtue  of  much  smoke,  some  declared 
their  product  would  give  great  noise,  while  others 
vowed  that  they  could  mix  a  charge  of  such  magic 
qualities  that  it  would  shoot  projectiles  unusually 


56  THE  GUN  BOOK 

straight.  Indeed  the  general  ignorance  which 
long  prevailed  regarding  the  explosive  was  sur- 
prising. As  late  as  1702  De  la  Hire,  a  French 
scientist  then  eminent,  gave  as  his  mature  opinion 
that  the  projectile  was  expelled  from  the  gun  be- 
cause of  the  expansion  of  the  air  among  the 
grains  when  the  powder  burned.  The  creation 
of  gases  during  the  explosion  seemed  to  be  even 
unguessed.  It  is  only  within  the  last  hundred 
years  that  the  gas-making  qualities  of  powder 
have  become  to  any  extent  common  knowledge, 
while  only  within  sixty  years,  commencing  with 
the  labors  of  General  Rodman  of  the  United 
States  Army  just  prior  to  the  Civil  War,  has  the 
study  of  explosive  propulsion  taken  on  the  dignity 
of  a  science.  • 

The  procuring  of  saltpeter  was  ever  a  serious 
problem  with  the  powder  makers  of  former  times. 
In  the  Oriental  countries  it  was  plentiful,  but 
transportation  of  the  material  from  that  source 
was  so  difficult  that  supplies  nearer  home  were 
much  to  be  desired.  Though  nature  is  constantly 
producing  saltpeter  everywhere  that  plants 
abound  to  give  decayed  vegetable  matter,  Europe 
never  seemed  to  produce  it  very  plentifully;  by 
dint  of  hard  labor  and  much  ingenuity,  however, 
considerable  quantities  of  the  salt  could  always 


ABOUT  GUNPOWDER  57 

be  had.  It  was  found  that  the  stone  walls  of  old 
stables  contained  good  percentages  of  saltpeter 
absorbed  from  manure,  which  could  be  extracted 
by  soaking  the  broken  mortar  from  the  masonry 
in  water  and  evaporating  the  liquor.  The  sides 
of  ancient  underground  vaults  encrusted  with  the 
white  deposit  were  scraped  and  washed  to  get  the 
small  contributions  they  afforded.  In  every  Eu- 
ropean country  where  firearms  were  used,  official 
squads  existed  whose  duty  it  was,  both  in  peace 
and  war,  to  search  for  these  scanty  sources  of 
supply  and  to  garner  the  precious  chemical.  Slow 
and  laborious  as  the  process  was,  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  pounds  were  by  such  methods  annually 
brought  into  the  national  arsenals. 

The  presence  of  saltpeter  in  those  old  walls 
and  in  deposits  formed  by  waters  seeping  through 
decaying  vegetable  matter,  led  men  later  on  to 
try  producing  the  drug  by  imitating  nature's 
methods.  Thus  came  into  existence  the  industry 
long  important  in  Europe,  known  as  niter  farm- 
ing. In  this  process  beds  of  mingled  manure 
and  earth  were  prepared,  each  so  arranged  that 
it  could  be  kept  warm  and  dark;  and  to  permit 
free  admission  of  air  to  the  mass  the  contents  of 
the  bed  were  frequently  stirred.  Experience 
taught  that  these  steps  brought  best  results. 


58  THE  GUN  BOOK 

After  a  few  weeks  of  this  treatment,  wood-ashes 
were  added  to  the  mixture,  and  then  the  whole 
soaked  in  water.  The  liquor  obtained  when 
evaporated  left  in  the  bottom  of  the  containing 
vessel  a  coating  of  white  crystals  of  saltpeter. 

The  niter  farmer  of  olden  times  did  not  know 
why  he  did  things  in  this  manner,  but  only  that 
in  so  doing  he  in  the  end  obtained  a  small  quantity 
of  the  prized  chemical.  Science  has  since  taught 
us  that  the  process  produced  saltpeter  chiefly 
through  the  action  of  certain  bacteria,  tiny  plants 
which  thrive  in  decaying  vegetable  matter  which 
is  kept  damp,  dark,  and  warm.  What  we  call 
decay  is  simply  the  destruction  of  vegetable  fibers 
by  other  plants  feeding  upon  them.  The  bacteria 
in  question,  in  thus  sustaining  their  own  lives, 
caused  nitric  acid  (HN03)  to  form;  and  as  wood- 
ashes  contain  potassium  (K),  the  acid  seizes  it 
when  the  two  come  in  contact,  forming  potassium 
nitrate  (KN03),  or  saltpeter.  The  nitrate  farmer 
had  invented  nothing  new,  but,  by  creating  favora- 
ble conditions,  allowed  Nature  to  hurry  her  proc- 
esses faster  than  when  human  hands  did  not  in- 
terfere. 

During  the  century  and  a  half  preceding  1850 
niter  beds  produced  a  large  part  of  the  saltpeter 
used  in  European  countries.  But  about  the  latter 


ABOUT  GUNPOWDER  59 

date  a  new,  cheap,  and  abundant  supply  of  the 
chemical  became  available  for  the  powder  maker. 
In  northern  Chile  occur  immense  deposits  of 
sodium  nitrate  (NaN03),  which,  it  will  be  noted, 
is  like  saltpeter,  except  that  it  contains  sodium 
instead  of  potassium.  Sodium  nitrate,  with  sul- 
phur and  charcoal,  makes  almost  as  good  an  ex- 
plosive as  the  saltpeter  mixture,  but  has  the  un- 
desirable quality  of  seizing  moisture  from  the 
atmosphere,  which  renders  its  burning  powers 
variable.  The  Chilean  chemical  standing  alone 
therefore  did  not  aid  in  the  search  for  a  cheap 
explosive.  In  Germany,  however,  there  existed 
huge  quantities  of  another  earth-bearing  potas- 
sium chloride  (KC1) ;  and  it  was  discovered, 
when  the  Chilean  earth  and  that  from  Germany 
were  dissolved  together  in  water,  saltpeter  and 
common  salt  formed  as  follows:  NaN03+KCl= 
KN03+NaCl.  Thus  when  brought  together  these 
two  earths,  placed  by  nature  almost  on  opposite 
sides  of  the  globe,  voluntarily  exchanged  their 
atoms  to  form  two  different  compounds,  the  one 
to  help  destroy  human  life  and  the  other  to  pre- 
serve it. 

The  Chilean  and  German  chemicals  were  to  be 
had  in  untold  amounts  and  were  easily  mined  and 
transported;  so  that  at  last  the  powder  maker 


60  THE  GUN  BOOK 

was  supplied  with  saltpeter  cheap  and  plentiful. 
The  powder  used  in  our  Civil  War,  as  well  as  that 
used  in  all  of  the  great  European  wars  in  the 
latter  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  came  from 
this  source.  The  niter  farm  was  no  more  and 
the  farmer  who  tended  it  had  to  turn  to  other 
means  for  livelihood. 

The  scarcity  of  saltpeter  led  the  early  powder 
makers  to  form  their  explosive  mixtures  with  too 
little  of  this  ingredient  and  with  an  excess  of 
charcoal  or  sulphur;  the  powdei;  so  made  was 
weak,  and  because  the  elements  were  only  partly 
burned,  much  smoke  and  ash  resulted.  As  salt- 
peter became  more  plentiful  in  later  days, 
through  better  methods  of  production  and  cheaper 
transportation,  the  percentage  of  it  used  was  in- 
creased, with  consequent  improvement  in  the  ex- 
plosive. But  this  custom  of  changing  the  propor- 
tions of  the  ingredients  according  to  the  supply 
of  each  at  hand,  gives  an  insight  into  the  rule-of- 
thumb  methods  which  long  governed  the  manu- 
facture of  powder. 

A  good  black  powder  mixture  for  firearms,  and 
the  one  now  generally  used  for  arms  requiring 
that  kind  of  explosive,  is  made  of  six  parts  by 
weight  of  saltpeter  and  one  part  each  of  charcoal 
and  sulphur. 


ABOUT  GUNPOWDER  61 

The  chemical  symbols  for  these  substances  are : 
saltpeter,  KN03,  carbon,  C,  and  sulphur,  S.  Upon 
burning,  these  ingredients  change  into  two  solids, 
potassium  carbonate  (K2C03),  and  potassium  sul- 
phate (K2S04),  and  three  gases,  nitrogen  (N), 
carbon  dioxide  (C02),  and  carbon  monoxide  (CO). 
Expressed  as  a  chemical  formula  or  reaction, 
what  takes  place  when  the  explosive  burns  is 
approximately :  4KN03+C4+S=K2C03+K2S04+ 
N4+2C02+CO. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  all  of  the  carbon  has 
united  with  oxygen  from  the  saltpeter,  pro- 
ducing either  gases  or  different  solids.  Fifty- 
seven  per  cent  of  the  powder  we  began  with 
remains  as  solids  or  ash,  while  forty-three  per 
cent  has  turned  into  the  three  gases  indicated. 
The  space  occupied  by  the  new  products,  how- 
ever, has  so  wonderfully  increased  that  one  cubic 
inch  of  powder  will  now  fill  280  cubic  inches  at 
ordinary  atmospheric  pressure.  That  means  that 
in  burning  gunpowder  we  multiply  its  bulk  280 
times. 

The  pressures  thus  created  are  remarkable. 
Powder  exploded  in  a  small  chamber  strong  and 
tight  enough  to  prevent  leakage  will  press  against 
each  square  inch  of  the  cavity's  surface  with  a 
force  of  over  thirty  tons.  What  this  mighty 


62  THE  GUN  BOOK 

power  is  we  may  slightly  comprehend  when  we 
remember  that  the  strongest  steam  boilers  do  not 
carry  pressures  of  more  than  three  hundred 
pounds  to  the  square  inch.  When  fired  in  the 
gun,  of  course,  no  such  force  is  exerted,  for  the 
cold  metal  walls  of  the  tube  cool  and  shrink  the 
gases  considerably  and  the  projectile  moving  for- 
ward before  the  whole  charge  is  burned  gives 
space  for  expansion.  But  ten  to  fifteen  tons  is 
an  ordinary  pressure  for  black  powder  fired  in 
rifle  or  cannon. 

The  burning  of  powder  in  a  gun  is  much  the 
same  operation  as  burning  wood  in  a  stove,  except 
that  with  the  latter  air  must  be  admitted  or  there 
will  be  little  or  no  combustion.  In  both  cases  we 
cause  carbon  to  unite  with  oxygen  to  produce  heat 
and  to  form  gas.  The  carbon  in  the  wood  takes 
its  oxygen  slowly  from  the  air  and  we  get  a  fire. 
The  peculiarity  of  gunpowder,  however,  is  that 
it  carries  with  it  its  own  carbon  and  oxygen,  both 
in  solid  form,  and  atoms  of  the  two  when  slightly 
heated  jump  suddenly  together,  producing  not  a 
slow  fire  but  a  quick  one,  which  we  call  an  ex- 
plosion. The  gases  produced  by  the  wood  fire 
pass  leisurely  up  the  chimney;  those  formed  by 
powder  in  the  gun  barrel,  firmly  resisted  by  iron 
walls  on  all  sides  except  one,  rush  violently  out 


ABOUT  GUNPOWDER  63 

of  the  muzzle,  carrying  the  obstructing  bullet 
ahead  of  them.  Thus  we  have  a  shot. 

While  we  have  learned  much  about  how  the 
atoms  of  carbon  and  oxygen  come  together  to 
produce  a  bulky  gas,  we  know  little  about  why 
they  so  act.  We  only  know  that  the  minute  par- 
ticles have  a  strange  desire  to  leap  into  each 
other's  arms  when  brought  close  together  and 
slightly  heated.  In  the  operation  they  produce 
heat  and  create  a  new  gaseous  compound.  For 
the  sake  of  giving  a  name  to  this  force,  we  call 
it  " chemical  affinity."  The  sulphur  in  the  powder 
mixture  seems  to  aid  the  atoms  of  carbon  and 
oxygen  in  coming  together ;  it  ignites  readily  and 
produces  the  required  preliminary  heat.  Increase 
of  sulphur  makes  the  explosion  much  more  vio- 
lent, while  a  smaller  percentage  allows  the  pow- 
der to  burn  more  slowly.  By  varying  the  sulphur 
content,  then,  we  can,  to  a  certain  extent,  make 
quick  or  slow  powder  as  we  wish. 

Whether  the  ancient  "fire  powder "  which  pre- 
ceded the  gun,  and  of  which  crackers  and  rockets 
were  made,  was  the  same  as  our  gunpowder  is 
not  altogether  certain.  If  you  will  put  a  dab  of 
saltpeter  on  the  end  of  a  splinter  and  hold  it  in 
the  fire  it  will  sputter  in  a  lively  manner  as  the 
oxygen  from  it  unites  with  the  carbon  of  the 


64  THE  GUN  BOOK 

wood,  for  even  without  sulphur,  carbon  and  salt- 
peter will  make  a  mild  explosive.  We  are  quite 
sure  that  the  Orientals  used  saltpeter  and  char- 
coal in  their  powder,  for  we  have  never  found 
them  using  anything  else,  and  they  had  these  ma- 
terials in  abundance.  It  has  been  argued,  how- 
ever, that  they  did  not  use  sulphur  in  their  mix- 
ture because  their  two  chief  types  of  fireworks, 
the  cracker  and  the  squib,  could  both  be  made  of 
saltpeter  and  charcoal  alone,  while  if  sulphur  had 
been  added  the  rocket  and  pinwheel  would  have 
burst  without  moving.  But  this  contention  loses 
sight  of  the  fact  that  gunpowder,  if  slightly  damp- 
ened, will  burn  slowly  enough  to  make  excellent 
rockets ;  again,  if  the  powder  be  ground  very  fine 
and  tamped  tightly  into  a  rocket  tube  it  will  burn 
so  slowly  as  to  carry  the  apparatus  up  without 
bursting  it.  But  the  most  we  know  concerning 
the  matter  is  that  about  1265,  when  Roger  Bacon 
first  described  gunpowder  for  us,  sulphur  was  an 
important  part  of  the  compound. 

Although  Bacon  distinctly  stated  that  the  three 
ingredients  were  to  be  finely  ground,  mixed,  and 
wetted  in  order  to  get  the  best  results,  the  powder 
makers,  for  more  than  two  centuries  after  guns 
came  into  use,  insisted  in  omitting  the  wetting 
process  and  using  the  stuff  in  dry  "dust-like  form, 


ABOUT  GUNPOWDER  65 

calling  it,  as  we  have  seen,  ' '  serpentine. ' '  When 
mixed  beforehand  and  hauled  about  in  jolting 
carts,  or  carried  in  powder  flasks,  the  ingredients 
had  the  disagreeable  habit  of  forming  themselves 
into  layers,  the  heavier  saltpeter  going  to  the 
bottom  and  the  fluffy  charcoal  rising  to  the  top. 
To  prevent  this,  the  materials  had  to  be  carried 
separately  and  not  mixed  until  actually  ready  to 
go  into  action;  thus,  as  we  have  seen,  giving  rise 
to  danger  of  premature  explosions,  and  making 
welcome  the  advent  of  the  guards  armed  with 
wheel-lock  muskets  instead  of  match-locks. 

4 ' Thrust  the  poudre  home  faire  and  softly," 
said  an  old  writer  in  giving  advice  on  the  loading 
of  guns.  The  warning  was  then  important,  for 
when  serpentine  was  rammed  hard  into  the  barrel 
it  would  not  explode.  The  mass  was  too  solid  for 
fire  to  penetrate  it  and  the  bullet  might  or  might 
not  be  pushed  out.  This  behavior  of  serpentine 
was  very  puzzling  to  the  gunners  of  that  day,  for 
they  knew  only  the  result  and  not  the  cause  of  it. 
It  is  no  wonder  they  called  it  "devilish  stuff." 
The  peculiarity,  however,  was  due  to  a  very  sim- 
ple principle  of  all  burning. 

When  flame  attacks  a  solid  it  must  consume  it 
from  the  outside  inward  toward  the  center,  and 
this  action,  even  with  gunpowder  grains,  takes 


66  THE  GUN  BOOK 

time.  In  general  the  bigger  the  lump  the  slower 
will  be  the  combustion,  just  as  we  see  a.  large 
chunk  of  coal  lie  smoldering  in  the  fire  long  after 
the  smaller  pieces,  the  same  in  total  quantity,  are 
reduced  to  ashes.  The  tightly  rammed  serpentine 
became  a  compact  lump  burning  leisurely  or  not 
at  all.  When  "thrust  home  faire  and  softly"  it 
burned  rather  satisfactorily,  but  in  clumsy  hands 
faulty  loading  of  the  black  dust  gave  constant 
trouble.  One  shot  would  be  violent  and  the  next 
a  failure,  according  to  the  force  applied  in  load- 
ing the  gun. 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  sixteenth  century  the 
practice  began  of  wetting  the  powder  during 
manufacture,  and  this  in  time  became  the  standard 
method.  The  dampened  powder  when  dried  into 
cakes  and  broken  up  remained  in  tiny  lumps  or 
flakes,  from  which  the  dust  was  sifted.  It  was 
then  called  "  corned  powder."  Transported,  it 
did  not  cause  separation  into  layers  as  with  ser- 
pentine; and  the  loading  of  guns,  too,  became  a 
less  delicate  operation,  for  the  granular  powder 
could  not  easily  be  rammed  too  tight.  Corned 
powder  proved  to  be  much  more  violent  in  its 
explosion  than  serpentine.  This  fact  was  due  to 
the  principles  governing  burning  materials  al- 
ready alluded  to.  The  finely  pulverized  serpen- 


ABOUT  GUNPOWDER  67 

tine  retarded  the  circulation  of  flame  through  it, 
and  hence  its  rate  of  burning  was  slow;  while 
the  grained  powder  had  vacant  spaces  between 
the  granules,  which  allowed  free  access  for  the 
igniting  fire,  resulting  in  rapid  combustion.  In 
hand  guns  the  tubes  could  rather  easily  be  made 
strong  enough  to  withstand  the  shock  of  the  more 
sudden  explosive,  because  a  small  tube,  having 
fewer  square  inches  on  its  interior,  presents  less 
surface  to  the  pressure  of  gases.  But  the  use 
of  corned  powder  in  cannon  was  not  permissible 
for  a  long  time  after  its  manufacture  began,  be- 
cause the  great  guns  burst  or  swelled  under  the 
increased  strain.  It  was  half  a  century  before 
cannoneers  discovered  that  corned  powder  could 
also  be  used  in  their  weapons,  provided  the  grains 
were  made  so  large  that  they  were  rather  slowly 
consumed.  Thenceforth  powder  for  large  and 
small  guns  differed  chiefly  in  the  size  of  their 
grains,  and  serpentine  passed  out  of  use  for  all 
purposes. 

The  making  of  powder  into  grains  has  become 
an  important  and  rather  complicated  process  in 
our  day.  The  effort  is  made  not  only  to  make  all 
kernels  the  same  size,  but  of  the  same -shape  as 
well ;  for  the  spherical  grain  will  not  burn  as  fast 
as  one  made  more  nearly  flat,  since  the  latter 


68  THE  GUN  BOOK 

exposes  more  surface  and  therefore  burns  more 
quickly.  Unless  the  grains  are  uniform  the  burn- 
ing will  vary  between  one  charge  and  another, 
and  inaccurate  shooting  will  result.  Our  powder 
is  also  much  less  bulky  than  that  of  days  gone 
by; 'for  in  the  process  of  manufacture  it  is  sub- 
jected to  heavy  pressure,  which  not  only  makes 
it  very  compact,  but  the  hardened  grains  burn 
more  slowly  than  soft  grains  would.  After  the 
compressed  cakes  are  broken  up  into  grains,  this 
hardness  also  permits  their  surfaces  to  be  pol- 
ished until  they  shine,  and  they  thereby  resist 
dampness  far  more  successfully  than  did  the  old 
serpentine  or  corned  powder.  But  gunpowder 
(with  all  its  virtues,  old  and  new)  has  never  been 
a  perfect  propellant.  Its  explosion  is  either  too 
fast  or  too  slow,  and  there  has  been  no  successful 
middle  ground  yet  discovered.  When  made  to 
burn  slowly  the  proportions  of  its  ingredients 
are  not  right  for  perfect  combustion;  hence  a 
large  percentage  of  its  mass  remains  in  the 
weapon  unburned,  being  not  only  wasted,  but 
clogging  up  the  bore,  to  the  detriment  of  the  next 
shot.  If  correct  proportions  of  the  materials  be 
used  the.  explosion  is  like  a  sudden  blow  against 
the  projectile,  tending  to  crush  it  and  burst  the 
gun,  instead  of  giving  the  long  push  down 


ABOUT  GUNPOWDER  69 

the  barrel  that  gives  speed  with  minimum  of 
shock.  Merely  changing  the  size,  shape,  and 
hardness  of  the  powder  grains  gives  considerable 
leeway  in  regulating  the  force  of  the  explosion, 
but  not  enough  to  gain  the  desired  results. 

This  great  defect  in  gunpowder  has  led  to  the 
invention  of  nitro  or  smokeless  powders  which 
can  be  made  to  burn  as  slowly  or  as  fast  as  may 
be  wanted.  The  astonishing  improvements  in 
gunnery  brought  in  by  the  new  explosives  are 
too  many  to  be  mentioned  here  and  will  therefore 
have  to  be  reserved  for  a  future  chapter. 

Hence  gunpowder  is  now  on  its  way  to  oblivion 
along  with  serpentine  and  the  arquebuse.  Though 
we  welcome  the  new  explosives  that  take  its  place, 
there  is  something  solemn  about  this  passing  of 
our  long-time  friend.  It  is  one  of  the  few  links 
that  remain  to  connect  our  modern  with  the  an- 
cient world,  and  though  it  has  wrought  much  woe 
to  mankind  at  times,  it  has,  on  the  whole,  been 
a  faithful  worker  for  human  liberty.  Let  us 
therefore  give  it  at  least  a  kindly  thought  as  it 
into  the  distance  behind  us. 


CHAPTER  V 

GOOD  WORKS  WROUGHT  BY  THE  GUN 

AT  the  Battle  of  Crecy  in  1346  the  long  bow, 
crossbow,  and  cannon  all  began  their  careers  as 
arms  of  world-wide  importance,  but  that  contest 
witnessed  another  revelation  of  more  far-reach- 
ing effect  than  the  mere  introduction  of  new  and 
deadly  weapons.  It  was  proven  on  that  hard- 
fought  field  that  common  men,  when  armed  and 
trained,  had  the  heart  to  stand  up  and  fight 
against  aristocrats,  a  fact  that  the  latter  class 
in  continental  Europe  had  long  refused  to  be- 
lieve. Crecy  marked  the  beginning  of  the  rise 
of  the  infantry  soldier  and  the  downfall  of  the 
mailed  horseman.  The  reversal  did  not  all  come 
at  once,  of  course,  but  when  started  kept  on  until 
completed. 

The  effect  of  this  change  of  positions  was  very 
great.  It  meant  that  a  king  or  petty  prince  could 
no  longer  declare  war  at  his  own  caprice,  and 
with  a  small  band  of  mounted,  steel-protected 
knights  proceed  to  ravage  the  territory  and 

70 


GOOD  WORKS  WROUGHT  BY  THE  GUN    71 

.murder  the  inhabitants  of  a  neighboring  state. 
The  sound  beating  the  English  footmen  admin- 
istered to  the  French  nobles  at  Crecy  gave  new 
courage  and  confidence  to  every  peasant  and 
artisan,  men  who  for  centuries  before  had  been 
compelled  to  cringe  in  the  presence  of  those  they 
had  been  taught  were  their  betters. 

The  truth  is  that  infantry  properly  armed  and 
trained  to  act  in  unison  has  always  been  stronger 
than  cavalry;  for  the  latter 's  best  weapon  is  the 
horse,  and  horses  have  always  been  vulnerable 
to  the  spear  or  strong-shooting  missile  weapon. 
But  in  the  Middle  Ages  the  leisure  classes  kept 
to  themselves  the  sport  of  fighting,  and  there  was 
no  one  to  drill  the  footmen,  who  therefore  did 
not  know  their  strength.  A  man  who  worked  with 
his  hands  was  not  permitted  to  become  a  knight ; , 
he  was  an  inferior  with  whom  no  comradeship 
was  possible.  The  art  of  fighting  on  horseback 
with  lance  and  sword  required  long  practice ;  and 
even  if  the  common  man  had  possessed  the  elab- 
orate equipment  necessary,  this  practice  could  not 
be  gained  in  secret.  For  a  farmer  or  carpenter 
to  be  caught  with  arms  was  in  itself  a  crime, 
frequently  punishable  with  death.  In  cold  fact, 
the  peasant  actually  belonged  to  the  lord  who 
owned  the  land  upon  which  the  peasant  lived,  and 


72  THE  GUN  BOOK 

was  bought  and  sold  with  the  land,  just  as  were 
the  cattle  in  the  pastures  of  the  domain.  The 
poor  fellow  did  not  even  own  his  own  body  and 
could  not  leave  his  master 's  farm  boundaries  with- 


FIG.  13. — A  KNIGHT  IN  ARMOR 

out  special  consent.  It  is  no  wonder  then  that 
the  ordinary  man  liv<ed  cowed  and  humble  for  so 
long. 

Being  a  knight  was  an  expensive  business,  for 
each  had  to  have  several  horses,  with  servants  to 
care  for  them;  besides,  an  attendant,  called  a 
squire,  was  necessary  to  help  the  steel-encum- 
bered great  man  into  his  saddle,  and  hand  him 
his  weapons  after  he  was  up.  The  mail  worn, 


GOOD  WORKS  WROUGHT  BY  THE  GUN    73 

too,  cost  a  small  fortune,  for  it  had  to  be  ham- 
mered by  hand  out  of  fine  steel,  which  was  then 
almost  a  precious  metal;  the  engraving  upon  it 
alone  often  took  a  year's  time  of  a  skilled  worker. 
The  warrior  class,  therefore,  came  to  be  made  up 
wholly  of  the  rich  or  well-to-do,  separate  and 
apart  from  the  common  people,  who  had  to  work 
to  live. 

While  song  and  story  tell  us  pleasing  legends 
of  the  courtly  conduct  of  these  knights,  the  sad 
truth  is  that  their  fine  manners  were  kept  prin- 
cipally for  members  of  their  own  high-born  class. 
As  a  rule,  they  treated  the  common  people  shame- 
fully at  home,  while  the  peasants  they  sometimes 
drove  into  the  field  with  them  in  their  wars  to 
act  as  servants  and  to  guard  camps  and  supplies, 
were  often  ruthlessly  sacrificed  to  the  enemy.  In-. 
deed  there  is  more  than  one  instance  on  record 
where  they  deliberately  rode  down  their  own  foot- 
men in  order  to  gain  some  slight  advantage  in 
battle,  or  to  save  their  precious  necks  in  retreat. 

These  shameful  things  they  could  do  with  im- 
punity, for  their  armor  protected  them  from  dam- 
age by  the  ordinary  weapons  then  in  use.  It  was 
difficult  even  for  one  knight  to  overcome  another 
in  fair  fight  because  of  the  strength  of  the  mail 
they  wore.  Their  actual  battles  were  almost 


74  THE  GUN  BOOK 

bloodless  at  times,  for  the  most  one  could  usually 
do  was  to  unhorse  the  other,  and  the  vanquished 
one,  burdened  with  armor,  then  lay  still  until  the 
fight  was  over,  and  either  his  friends  had  time  to 
come  and  pick  him  up  or  his  foes  to  rescue  him 
and  hold  him  for  ransom. 

The  appearance  of  the  long  bow,  however,  put 
an  end  to  all  this  arrogance  of  the  knights.  The 
cloth-yard  shaft  punctured  their  armor,  pierced 
their  bodies,  and  humbled  their  insufferable  pride. 
They  then  tried  making  their  steel  plates  so 
heavy  and  strong  that  arrows  could  not  break 
through.  In  this  they  succeeded  moderately  well, 
but  the  horse  could  not  be  so  protected,  hence 
armor  was  finally  almost  entirely  thrown  aside. 
The  aristocrat  then,  if  he  wanted  to  go  to  war, 
might  still  ride  his  horse,  but  he  took  his  chances 
in  battle  with  the  humblest.  He  had  lost  his 
monopoly  of  the  trade  of  fighting  and  became  a 
mere  assistant  of  the  formerly  despised  foot- 
soldier. 

The  good  work  thus  begun  by  the  long  bow  in 
displacing  armor  and  the  aristocratic  warrior 
class  was  taken  up  and  continued  by  the  hand 
gun.  But  before  firearms  assumed  the  full  bur- 
den, the  ancient  spear  of  the  Greek  and  Eoman 
was  again  to  come  back  to  earth  and  serve,  as 


GOOD  WORKS  WROUGHT  BY  THE  GUN    75 

before,  as  an  infantry  weapon  for  over  a  century. 
Cavalry  was  still  an  important  part  of  every 
army,  though  the  trained  foot-soldier  was  now 
relied  upon  to  bear  the  brunt  of  the  fighting.  The 
spear,  or  pike,  as  it  was  called,  could  not  only  repel 
a  cavalry  charge,  which  the  sword  could  not  do, 
but  at  hand-to-hand  fighting  with  other  infantry 
was  also  a  formidable  weapon.  The  hand-gun 
man  could  shoot  only  a  single  ball,  while  a  charg- 
ing enemy  either  on  horse  or  foot  was  advancing 
two  or  three  hundred  yards;  and  as  his  weapon 
was  useless  at  close  quarters,  not  much  reliance 
could  be  placed  upon  him.  Therefore  in  the  six- 
teenth century  Spanish  armies,  which  were  of  the 
best,  contained  only  a  few  musketeers.  In  time, 
however,  the  number  was  gradually  increased.  It 
became  customary  to  have  the  front  line  of  spear- 
men open  their  ranks,  allowing  hand  gunners  to 
advance,  fire,  and  retreat;  one  after  another  ad- 
vancing and  repeating  the  operation  until  the 
enemy  charged,  when  the  line  of  spears  was  again 
closed  up.  The  slowness  of  these  guns  can  be  esti- 
mated when  we  are  told  that,  in  order  to  keep  up 
a  continuous  fire  through  one  gap  in  the  spear 
line,  five  musketeers  were  necessary,  one  actually 
shooting  and  four  behind  in  the  various  stages 
of  loading  their  pieces.  This  complicated  process 


76 


THE  GUN  BOOK 


required  so  much  training  and  was  so  generally 
unsatisfactory  that  the  hand  gun,  though  never 
abandoned,  remained  largely 
in  the  background  until  the 
middle  of  the  seventeenth 
century. 

The  arrival  of  the  bayonet 
in  1640  is  what  really  raised 
the  hand  gun  to  the  first 
class  as  an  arm  for  infantry, 
and  put  an  end  to  these  cum- 
bersome tactics.  This  im- 
portant instrument  got  its 
name  from  the  little  town 
of  Bayonne  in  France,  where 
it  is  supposed  to  have  orig- 
inated. At  first  it  was  sim- 
ply a  knife  with  a  round 
shank  to  be  stuck  into  the 


FIG.  14.— BAYONETS, 

17TH  CENTURY 
1.  Wooden-handled      tri- 

angular-bladed     bay-      muzzle  of  the  gun,  which,  of 

course,   could   not   be   fired 


onet-poniard. 

2.  English         langue-de- 

boeuf  plug-bayonet.  ....      .,         , 

3.  Spanish    wooden-tain-    until   the   bayonet   was   re- 

moved.    This  objection  was 


died  knife-bayonet. 


soon  done  away  with  by  making  the  shank 
hollow,  to  slip  over  the  outside  of  the  barrel. 
The  effect  of  the  bayonet  was  to  drive  out 
the  pike,  because  with  this  attachment  the 


GOOD  WORKS  WROUGHT  BY  THE  GUN    77 

musketeer,  whose  weapon  had  by  this  time 
been  reduced  in  weight  to  about  fifteen  pounds, 
now  became  a  pikeman  as  well  as  the  bearer 
of  a  missile  weapon.  With  his  bayonet-pointed 
gun  he  could  shoot  from  long  range  or  fight 
at  close  quarters,  as  with  a  spear,  and  even 
successfully  cut  down  the  horses  of  cavalry  that 
might  charge  upon  him.  The  results  which  fol- 
lowed were  startling,  for  instead  of  having,  say, 
a  thousand  men  armed  with  pikes  for  close  fight- 
ing, and  another  and  different  thousand  for  shoot- 
ing balls  to  a  distance,  there  were  now  two  thou- 
sand men  who  could  be  sent  in  at  the  same 
moment  to  fight  either  kind  of  battle.  The 
strength  of  the  force  was  thereby  instantly 
doubled.  Of  course  the  pike  and  sword  were  no 
longer  necessary  and  the  gun  with  its  bayonet 
became  the  sole  reliance  of  infantry. 

But  mere  changes  in  military  tactics  were  far 
overshadowed  in  importance  by  other  results  fol- 
lowing the  introduction  of  new  arms  and  the  sub- 
stitution of  the  foot-soldier  for  the  knight  as  the 
chief  fighting  unit  in  armies. 

The  powers  of  government  immediately  began 
to  shift  from  a  very  small  and  exclusive  class  in 
nations  into  the  hands  of  the  majority  of  the 
people,  where  such  powers  actually  belong.  The 


78  THE  GUN  BOOK 

king  was  thereafter  compelled  to  go  to  the  com- 
mon people  of  his  land,  who  were  to  do  the  real 
fighting  and  who  had  always  paid  the  bills,  and 
persuade  them  to  follow  him  into  the  field ;  he  had 
also  to  ask  them  for  the  money  to  finance  his  wars, 
whereas  in  previous  centuries  ordinary  folk  came 
and  went  as  they  were  bid,  and  gave  up  their 
earnings  in  taxes  whether  they  liked  it  or  not. 
Though  kings  continued  at  times  to  lead  their 
infantry  armies  into  occasional  unjust  wars,  they 
had  to  do  it  by  cajolery  or  deception;  they  could 
no  longer  force  their  men  into  action.  This  shift- 
ing of  power  and  the  changing  of  government 
from  master  to  servant,  though  begun  at  the 
Battle  of  Crecy  and  not  even  yet  entirely  com- 
pleted, have  been  among  the  world's  greatest 
events.  In  bringing  them  about  the  gun  has  had 
no  small  part. 

It  had  long  been  a  proverb  in  English  law  that 
a  man's  house  was  his  castle,  which  none  could 
enter  without  his  consent.  But  until  the  coming 
of  the  gun  the  claim  was  rather  an  empty  boast, 
at  least  on  the  part  of  the  humble  citizen.  With 
only  the  strength  of  his  arm  to  repel  an  intruder 
such  a  man  had  small  chance  to  carry  out  the  fine 
principle.  Firearms  gave  the  advantage  to  the 
man  who,  behind  his  door,  acted  on  the  defensive. 


GOOD  WORKS  WROUGHT  BY  THE  GUN    79 

With  a  gun  in  his  hand  the  defender  became  as 
strong  as  several  men  on  the  offensive,  and  en- 
trance to  a  house  against  its  owner's  will 
was  a  hazardous  affair.  The  result  has  been, 
as  we  see  it  continued  to  this  day  in  the  most 
enlightened  countries,  that  one  man,  no  matter 
how  high  his  station,  cannot  lawfully  enter  the 
home  of  another  without  his  consent;  and  if  he 
tries  it  he  may  be  shot  down,  if  that  be  necessary 
to  stop  him.  The  only  exception  is  where  the 
people  themselves,  through  their  officers,  for  good 
cause  shown,  require  the  invasion.  Thus,  security 
of  the  home,  a  thing  unknown  in  the  days  of  the 
valiant  knights  who  strode  in  and  out  as  they 
chose  among  the  common  people,  became  estab- 
lished not  as  a  mere  saying  but  as  a  fact.  For 
this  blessing  we  must  also  thank  chiefly  the 
gun. 

As  the  right  to  make  laws  gradually  came  into 
the  hands  of  the  people  themselves,  other  reforms 
greatly  needed  came  about.  Some  of  these  we 
enjoy  today,  perhaps  without  fully  appreciating 
them.  When  governors  owned  the  people,  they 
of  course  found  their  subjects  easier  to  handle  if 
kept  poor,  ignorant,  and  in  fear.  So  the  taxes 
which  the  workers  paid  were  not  devoted  to  the 
building  of  schoolhouses  and  the  providing  of 


80  THE  GUN  BOOK 

teachers  to  instruct  the  youth,  but  were  spent  by 
the  overlords  in  silly  wars,  which  were  not  much 
more  than  hunting  expeditions  gotten  up  for 
sport,  and  on  foolish  display  in  dress,  as  well  as 
eating  and  drinking  in  ease  and  luxury.  The  rich 
were  very  rich,  while  the  poor  were  kept  very 
poor  and  ignorant,  and  there  was  almost  no 
middle  class.  The  laws  of  the  country  were  made 
by  the  masters  and  applied  vigorously  to  the  com- 
mon people,  but  lightly  or  not  at  all  to  the  men 
who  made  these  laws.  A  farmer's  boy  caught 
trapping  rabbits  in  a  great  man's  game  preserve 
could  be  lawfully  hung  for  the  offense,  and  this 
was  frequently  done.  There  were  hundreds  of 
offenses  punishable  by  death  when  committed  by 
those  not  of  "blue  blood."  Sometimes  the  sen- 
tence called  for  the  quartering  of  the  body  of  the 
victim,  the  parts  to  be  swung  over  the  city  gate 
or  from  a  tree  by  the  roadside  to  warn  others  of 
the  terrible  fate  which  would  follow  the  breaking 
of  laws  in  the  making  of  which  the  people  af- 
fected had  no  part. 

If  these  barbarous  laws  had  been  applied  to  all 
alike  they  would  not  have  lasted  long ;  but  the  sad 
fact  was  that  they  were  made  by  one  class,  power- 
ful and  heartless,  and  enforced  against  the  lowly. 
It  was  not  until  the  peasant  had  a  gun  in  his 


GOOD  WORKS  WROUGHT  BY  THE  GUN    81 

hand,  fashioned  secretly  perhaps  at  the  village 
forge,  and  was  being  asked  for  favors  by  king 
and  nobility,  that  such  abuses  passed  away.  All 
men  were  created  equal,  but  only  the  gun  made 
that  equality  real  or  lasting. 

The  ordinary  European  boy  of  the  Middle  Ages 
was  doomed  to  be  always  a  peasant,  living  by 
hard  labor,  the  only  reward  of  which  was  poverty 
and  privation.  What  his  father  was  that  he  must 
remain,  no  matter  how  strong  the  urge  of  ambi- 
tion might  be  within  him.  The  accident  of  birth 
controlled  his  destiny.  While  this  unjust  social 
system  kept  the  individual  man  from  bettering 
his  position,  the  blight  had  a  still  deeper  effect 
in  depriving  the  national  affairs  of  the  intelli- 
gence and  force  of  the  thousands  of  able  men  who 
in  a  true  democracy  rise  to  leadership  from  all 
classes  of  the  population.  Brains,  honesty,  and 
energy  have  not  proved  to  be  the  birthright  of 
any  class,  but  spring  up  from  the  most  unexpected 
sources,  as  in  the  cases  of  our  beloved  Lincoln 
and  so  many  others.  In  some  European  countries 
a  social  system  somewhat  similar  to  that  of  the 
old  days  still  exists,  but  with  the  important  differ- 
ence that  the  dissatisfied  ones  can  pack  up  and 
leave  for  more  promising  lands.  Formerly,  as 
has  been  said,  the  lowly-born  man  was  the  prop- 


82  THE  GUN  BOOK 

erty  of  another  and  hence  the  right  of  free  move- 
ment was  denied.  Therefore  the  affairs  of  the 
world  lagged  in  their  progress,  bringing  the 
period  we  now  call  the  Dark  Ages,  when  Europe 
seemed  hopelessly  sunk  in  ignorance,  lethargy, 
and  dirt.  It  is  surely  more  than  a  coincidence 
that  these  depraved  conditions  changed  when  the 
poor  man  was  given  a  comparatively  powerful 
weapon  like  the  gun.  Equality  of  rights  has 
seldom  existed  without  equality  of  arms. 

Still  other  far-reaching  events  came  in  the  wake 
of  the  gun.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  necessity 
for  metal  with  which  to  make  guns,  both  large  and 
small,  had  much  to  do  with  ushering  in  the  age  of 
iron,  which  really  began  with  the  advent  of 
firearms.  Iron  and  steel  were  known  even  in  Old 
Testament  days,  but  down  to  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury they  had  been  produced  by  hand  bellows 
blown  upon  iron  stone,  in  an  open  fire  of  charcoal. 
The  quality  of  the  metal  produced  by  this. labori- 
ous process  was  good,  but  the  cost  was  almost 
prohibitive.  Good  iron  was  worth  something  like 
a  thousand  dollars  a  ton  in  our  money,  while  now, 
in  normal  times,  it  is  worth  but  twenty.  In  large 
quantities  the  metal  could  not  be  had  at  all.  With 
the  coming  of  the  gun  and  the  necessity  for  good 
metal  in  making  it,  iron  production  advanced  by 


GOOD  WORKS  WROUGHT  BY  THE  GUN    83 

leaps  and  bounds;  furnaces  with  air  blasts  were 
invented  to  replace  the  old  hand  bellows ;  favora- 
ble ore  deposits  were  sought  out;  the  heating 
value  of  coal  was  discovered,  and  the  mining  of 
these  two  great  staples  of  our  day  became  sub- 
stantial industries.  Even  modern  improvements 
in  composition  and  manufacture  of  metals  have 
received  great  impetus  from  the  demands  of  gun 
builders  for  better  materials  for  use  in  their  work. 
It  is  but  a  generation  ago  that  Bessemer,  in 
searching  for  a  cheap  method  of  producing  steel 
for  gun  making,  discovered  the  famous  process 
that  bears  his  name,  and  which  reduced  the  price 
of  steel  from  $300  per  ton  to  almost  the  price 
of  common  iron.  How  much  the  great  metal  in- 
dustry of  our  times  owes  to  the  gun  and  to  the 
body  of  ceaseless  workers  who  have  always 
striven  to  make  guns  cheaper,  stronger,  and  more 
reliable,  we  shall  probably  never  know;  but  the 
debt  is  not  a  light  one. 

We  have  space  here  only  to  mention  a  few  of 
the  substantial  benefits  which  the  gun  has 
brought,  directly  and  indirectly,  into  the  lives  of 
men;  but  we  cannot  pass  over  in  silence  one  other 
series  of  the  world's  greatest  events,  in  which 
vital  service  was  rendered  by  firearms.  Without 
them  the  discovery,  exploration,  and  settlement  of 


84  THE  GUN  BOOK 

the  Western  Hemisphere  would  have  been  impos- 
sible or  at  least  long  delayed. 

One  cannot,  for  instance,  read  of  the  famous 
voyage  of  Columbus  without  realizing  how  much 
reliance  he  and  his  wavering  crews  placed  upon 
the  arquebuse  and  cannon  carried  upon  their  ven- 
turesome little  ships.  Sailing  into  unknown  seas 
toward  lands  they  half  dreaded  to  approach,  the 
perils  of  which  only  their  imagination  gave  them 
warning,  the  great  captain  must  often  have 
pointed  to  the  sturdy  guns  upon  the  decks  and 
calmed  the  fears  of  his  men  by  boasting  of  their 
powers.  Whether  the  foe  should  prove  to  be 
horrid  sea  monster  or  gigantic  cannibal,  the  shot 
and  roar  and  belching  smoke  of  those  black  tubes 
would  subdue  or  frighten  him  away.  Thus  re- 
assured, the  quaking  men  could  always  be  led  a 
little  further  onward,  until  at  last  the  rising  and 
falling  light  on  the  shores  of  San  Salvador 
appeared,  and  morning  revealed  a  new  and 
beckoning  continent. 

It  is  doubtful,  too,  whether  the  brave  and  per- 
sistent Magellan  could  have  led  or  forced  his  un- 
willing followers  around  the  globe,  had  they  not 
possessed  the  weapons  that  assured  them  of  at 
least  a  chance  to  fight  against  and  probably  escape 
the  half-expected  onslaught  of  savage  man  and 


GOOD  WORKS  WROUGHT  BY  THE  GUN    85 

beast.  Without  firearms  indeed  it  is  not  too 
much  to  say  that  neither  Columbus  nor  Magellan 
could  have  induced  men  to  enlist  in  their  crews, 
even  to  begin  their  adventures,  let  alone  carrying 
them  out  to  successful  completion. 

However  it  may  have  been  with  the  early  ex- 
plorers, we  know  certainly  that  Cortez  could  not 
have  subdued  Mexico  without  guns;  and  what 
would  have  happened  to  our  own  North  American 
colonists,  had  they  trusted  only  to  bows  and 
spears  against  the  Indians,  can  be  more  than 
guessed.  The  fate  of  the  brave  Norsemen  who 
settled  on  the  same  coasts  about  the  year  1000 
gives  us  a  hint  of  what  would  have  happened. 
These,  having  no  advantage  in  arms  in  their  con- 
tests with  the  "Skraelings,"  were  hounded  and 
abused  and  finally  driven  off. 

•  The  whole  advance  of  white  men  across  our 
continent  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  in  the 
last  century  has  been  stubbornly  contested  by  the 
retreating  red  men  and  has  succeeded  only  be- 
cause of  constant  superiority  in  the  arms  em- 
ployed against  them.  The  muzzle-loading  smooth- 
bore at  first  overcame  the  bow  and  arrow;  then 
the  Indian  used  the  smooth-bore,  but  was  met  by 
the  longer,  straighter  shooting  rifle.  When  at  last 
he  became  possessed  of  the  muzzle-loading  rifle 


86  THE  GUN  BOOK 

he  found  himself  confronted  by  breechloaders 
and  repeaters.  Thus  the  brave  and  warlike  na- 
tives have  been  pushed  ever  and  ever  back  by 
weapons  against  which  they  were  unable  to 
contend. 

In  the  later  frontier  battles  the  Sioux  and 
Cheyenne  and  Apache  showed  what  the  Indian 
could  and  would  do  when  possessed  of  weapons 
to  match  those  of  his  white  foes.  He  stood  up 
and  fought  so  desperately  that,  no  matter  what 
may  be  said  of  his  other  defects,  his  adversaries 
no  longer  spoke  slightingly  of  his  courage. 
Equality  in  arms,  however,  came  to  the  Indian 
too  late,  and  the  waves  of  white  people  over- 
whelmed him. 

Is  it,-  then,  stating  the  case  too  strongly  if  we 
say  that,  in  addition  to  the  many  other  benefits 
it  conferred  upon  its  possessors,  the  gun  gave 
them  also  the  continents  of  the  two  Americas? 


CHAPTER  VI 

RECOIL— A  CONTEST  WITH  NATURAL 
LAWS 

HAVING  briefly  sketched  the  advance  of  the 
hand  gun  from  its  earliest  form,  a  simple  tube 
fastened  to  a  stick,  until  it  has  become  a  fairly 
serviceable  weapon,  in  outward  shape  much  as 
we  see  it  today,  the  further  progress  of  the  arm 
will  be  traced  in  more  detail.  This  can  best  be 
done  by  taking  up  one  by  one  the  very  interesting 
problems  underlying  the  art  of  gunnery,  and 
showing  how  little  by  little  they  have,  in  part,  been 
overcome.  We  shall,  therefore,  begin  by  consider- 
ing that  bane  of  all  guns,  old  and  new — recoil. 

Next  to  the  grave  difficulty  of  providing  a  re- 
liable ignition  system  perhaps  the  most  baffling 
task  of  the  gun  maker  has  been  to  produce  a 
weapon  light  in  weight,  powerful  in  shooting 
qualities,  but  still  with  mild  recoil.  A  hard- 
kicking  gun  will  not  only  bruise  the  shoulder  of 
the  firer,  but  will  jump  so  at  the  shock  of  the 
explosion  that  its  accuracy  is  almost  destroyed. 

87 


88  THE  GUN  BOOK 

From  the  very  beginning  the  user  of  guns  has  de- 
manded that  his  weapon  be  made  light  enough  to 
be  easily  carried,  while  insisting  also  on  high 
power  and  low  recoil — thereby  demanding  a  com- 
bination of  qualities  which  is  almost  impossible 
to  produce.  Yet  we  shall  see  how  his  contradic- 
tory requirements  have  been  fairly  well  complied 
with. 

When  the  powder  gas  expands  in  the  gun  barrel 
it  simply  forces  gun  and  bullet  apart,  the  lighter 
obstacle  flying  forward  far  and  fast,  while  the 
heavier  gun  is  driven  backward  less  violently  and 
for  a  much  shorter  distance.  The  power  exerted 
on  each,  however,  is  about  the  same.  The  greater 
the  speed  imparted  to  the  bullet  the  greater  will 
be  the  recoil  of  the  gun,  for  each  must  share  the 
increased  shock  necessary  to  give  the  higher 
velocity.  So,  too,  as  the  gun  is  made  lighter  or 
the  bullet  heavier,  unless  speed  is  sacrificed,  the 
kick  will  become  more  severe.  To  abolish  recoil 
entirely,  therefore,  we  should  require  a  gun  of 
great  weight,  a  tiny  bullet,  and  low  speed,  which 
are  exactly  the  conditions  the  gun-bearer  resents. 
Hence  we  must  accept  some  recoil,  striving,  how- 
ever, to  keep  it  within  reasonable  bounds. 

To  get  a  clearer  idea  of  how  gun  and  missile 
are  driven  apart  at  the  explosion,  the  one  slowly, 


A  CONTEST  WITH  NATURAL  LAWS      89 

the  other  fast,  let  us  try  a  simple  experiment. 
Get  a  piece  of  coil-spring  and  two  blocks,  one 
considerably  larger  than  the  other.  Compress  the 
spring  between  finger  and  thumb,  place  it  between 
the  blocks,  as  in  the  cut,  and  release  both  ends 
at  once.  The  smaller  block  will  be  sent  spinning 


FIG.  15. — PRINCIPLES  OF  RECOIL 

while  the  larger  one  will  be  moved  only  slightly, 
if  at  all. 

It  is  thus  that  gun  and  bullet  are  sent  in  op- 
posite directions,  for  the  elastic  gases  in  expand- 
ing act  much  like  the  coil-spring.  As  the  differ- 
ence increases  between  the  weights  of  the  two 
blocks  the  results  will  be  more  marked;  if  one 
be  very  much  smaller  than  the  other  it  will  be 
thrown  more  violently,  while  the  larger  one  will 
show  less  disturbance.  If  a  stronger  spring  be 
tried  the  movement  of  both  blocks  will  be  intensi- 
fied, just  as  gun  and  bullet  both  respond  to  the 
explosion  of  a  larger  powder  charge. 

In  the  actual  firing  of  a  gun,  however,  another 


90  THE  GUN  BOOK 

principle  is  at  work  which  is  not  present  in  the 
experiment  with  the  blocks.  Let  us  see  what  this 
is  and  the  results  it  produces.  Say  the  gun 
weighs  ten  pounds  and  shoots  a  bullet  of  half  an 
ounce ;  the  weapon  will  then  be  three  hundred  and 
twenty  times  heavier  than  its  missile.  On  firing, 
the  gun  will  recede  from  a  quarter  to  half  an  inch, 
until  it  comes  hard  against  the  shoulder  of  the 
firer;  the  shoulder  itself  will  then  give  back  an 
inch  or  more,  depending  on  the  position  and  bal- 
ance of  the  firer,  when  the  backward  thrust  of  the 
gun  will  cease.  The  weapon  has  then  been  halted 
partly  by  its  own  weight  and  partly  by  the  weight 
of  the  flesh  and  bone  behind  it,  the  whole  journey 
backward  having  been  less  than  two  inches;  the 
bullet,  however,  has  gone  forward  perhaps  a 
mile. 

The  half-ounce  of  lead  is  very  much  lighter 
than  the  combined  weights  of  gun  and  shoulder, 
but  even  this  difference  is  not  great  enough  to 
account  for  the  mildness  of  the  recoil  at  the  butt 
of  the  gun.  It  is  here  that  the  bent  stock  comes  to 
the  rescue.  Without  this  device  neither  the  old- 
fashioned  smooth-bore  nor  the  modern  high- 
powered  rifle  could  be  successfully  fired  from  the 
human  shoulder.  At  the  discharge  the  gun  moves 
back  the  short  distance  we  have  seen,  but  when 


A  CONTEST  WITH  NATURAL  LAWS      91 

it  comes  hard  against  the  body  the  angled  stock 
throws  the  muzzle  sharply  upward,  and  this  sec- 
ondary motion  uses  up  a  substantial  part  of  the 
recoil  force,  to  the  great  relief  of  the  shooter. 

To  illustrate  for  yourself  the  value  and  effect 
of  the  bent  stock  in  lessening  the  shock  against 
the  body  of  a  man  firing  a  gun,  take  an  ordinary 
carpenter's  square,  setting  the  short  end  against 


\ 


FIG.  16. — VALUE  AND  EFFECT  OF  THE  BENT  GUN  STOCK 

the  shoulder,  the  long  piece  extending  forward  as 
in  the  picture.  When  a  sudden  thrust  backward 
is  given  on  the  long  part  of  the  square,  it  will 
be  seen  to  travel  slightly  to  the  rear  and  then 
rise,  describing  a  curve.  This  is  just  what  hap- 
pens when  the  explosion  takes  place  in  the  gun; 
the  butt  end,  being  lower  than  the  barrel,  comes 
against  the  shoulder  first  and  the  leverage  it  ex- 
erts tips  the  muzzle  upward.  We  can  now  see 


92  THE  GUN  BOOK 

why  the  old  hand  gun  with  its  straight  stock  had 
to  be  very  heavy  in  proportion  to  its  rather  mild 
explosion;  the  force  of  its  recoil  being  wholly 
backward.  It  is  apparent,  too,  how  the  arquebuse 
with  its  bent  stock  could  shoot  harder  and  further 
and  still  weigh  much  less  than  its  predecessor. 

By  increasing  the  angle  at  which  barrel  and 
stock  join,  making  them  conform  more  nearly  to 
the  position  of  the  two  parts  of  the  carpenter's 
square,  we  may  produce  a  gun  that  will  have  little 
or  no  backward  thrust,  the  bulk  of  the  recoil  ex- 
pending itself  under  the  barrel  in  pushing  it  up. 
But  other  considerations  require  that  only  a 
moderate  angle  be  used.  It  is  necessary  that  the 
muzzle  remain  almost  stationary  until  after  the 
bullet  has  departed,  for  otherwise  accuracy  is  in- 
terfered with.  The  ideal  combination  is  to  have 
the  gun  traveling  straight  back  while  the  bullet 
is  passing  down  the  barrel  and  the  upward  throw 
begin  only  after  the  missile  is  clear.  Thus  the 
shot  is  made  as  intended,  while  the  later  part 
of  the  recoil  force  is  transmitted  to  the  barrel 
instead  of  the  butt  of  the  gun.  As  a  very  sub- 
stantial part  of  the  recoil  is  produced  by  the  gases 
which  continue  to  rush  out  of  the  tube  after  the 
bullet  is  on  its  way,  the  shock  to  the  firer  is 
greatly  lessened. 


A  CONTEST  WITH  NATURAL  LAWS      93 

It  must  be  particularly  noticed  that  the  bend- 
ing of  the  gun  stock  does  not  reduce  the  total 
force  of  the  recoil,  but  only  divides  its  effect  into 
a  double  motion,  sending  the  whole  gun  straight 
back  and  then  the  muzzle  upward. 

In  most  modern  rifles,  however,  the  angle  of 
the  stock  is  so  sharp  and  the  barrel  so  short  and 
light  that  the  muzzle  of  the  piece  does  rise  a 
tf ifle  before  the  bullet  is  free ;  the  gun,  therefore, 
will  shoot  high  unless  adjustment  of  the  sights 
is  made  to  correct  the  error.  This  plan  has  been 
found  to  work  quite  well  in  practice,  for  when  the 
ammunition  used  is  uniform  the  upward  jump  is 
always  the  same  and  a  good  degree  of  accuracy 
is  maintained;  while  a  more  powerful  explosion 
is  permitted  than  if  the  stock  and  barrel  were 
more  nearly  straight.  Where  the  ammunition 
varies  even  slightly,  however,  good  shooting  with 
guns  of  the  present  day  is  impossible. 

Only  within  twenty-five  years  have  the  real 
facts  about  recoil  in  small  arms  come  into  gen- 
eral knowledge.  A  hundred  years  ago  men  be- 
lieved that  their  guns  kicked  because  of  the 
sudden  rush  of  air  into  the  barrel  after  the  bullet 
had  left  it.  The  truth  that  gas  in  confinement 
presses  equally  hard  in  all  directions,  so  that  gun 
and  bullet  receive  shocks  of  equal  force  in  op- 


94  THE  GUN  BOOK 

posite  directions  at  the  explosion,  was  either  un- 
known or  entirely  ignored. 

Even  for  a  long  time  after  the  principles  of 
recoil  had  become  pretty  well  known  it  was  con- 
tended that  the  force  ceased  to  work  on  the  gun 
the  moment  the  bullet  left  the  barrel.  This  error 
would  have  been  apparent,  however,  if  the  con- 
duct of  the  skyrocket  had  been  considered  for  a 
moment.  In  it  the  open  end  is  entirely  unob- 
structed by  a  bullet,  yet  the  escaping  gases  still 
cause  sufficient  recoil  to  carry  the  apparatus  high 
into  the  air.  Its  powder  burns  much  more 
slowly  than  that  in  the  gun  barrel,  but — and  here 
is  a  fact  that  must  never  be  forgotten — the  burn- 
ing of  all  powder  and  the  expansion  of  the  result- 
ing gases  take  time.  The  interval  which  elapses 
between  ignition  of  the  first  particles  of  powder 
and  the  final  escape  of  the  gases  produced  by  the 
whole  charge  may  seem  very  short,  as  we  ordi- 
narily think  of  minutes  and  seconds;  but  in  gun- 
nery that  space  of  time  must  be  carefully 
reckoned  and  considered.  Recoil,  therefore,  is  to 
be  looked  upon  as  a  force  acting  through  a  sub- 
stantial period  of  time,  and  not  as  an  instantane- 
ous shock.  Indeed  the  gun,  so  far  as  recoil  alone 
is  concerned,  may  be  looked  upon  simply  as  a 
skyrocket  with  a  tube  so  strong  that  quick-burning 


A  CONTEST  WITH  NATURAL  LAWS     95 

powder  may  be  used  without  bursting  it;  the 
force  of  recoil  continues  just  as  in  the  rocket 
until  all  the  powder  has  burned  and  the  gases 
created  have  escaped.  The  part  played  by  the 
bullet  in  the  barrel  is  simply  to  hold  back  the 
gases  until  high  pressure  is  created;  then  when 
these  do  escape  it  is  with  high  velocity,  sending 
bullet  forward  and  gun  back.  Except  as  the 
bullet,  therefore,  creates  gas  pressure,  it  does  not 
affect  recoil;  hence  not  its  departure  from  the 
barrel,  but  the  departure  of  the  gases  themselves 
causes  recoil  to  cease. 

In  recent  times,  as  guns  grew  lighter  and  pow- 
der charges  more  powerful,  a  new  and  mysterious 
element  appeared  in  the  effects  of  recoil.  One 
of  the  easiest  ways  of  cutting  down  the  weight 
of  the  arm  was  by  making  the  barrel  thinner  at 
the  forward  end  where  the  gas  pressure  was  low 
and  the  tube  did  little  more  than  guide  the  pro- 
jectile. In  theory  these  guns  should  have  shot 
high,  because  of  the  more  violent  explosion  and 
the  upward  thrust  of  the  angled  stock  under  the 
lighter  barrel.  The  muzzle  should  have  started 
upward  before  the  bullet  was  out  of  it ;  but,  on  the 
contrary,  the  bullet  regularly  struck  below  the 
bull's-eye.  Why  was  it?  To  make  the  puzzle 
still  more  difficult,  it  was  found  that  the  same  gun 


96  THE  GUN  BOOK 

using  small  powder  charges  would  shoot  true. 
What  the  solution  was,  for  a  long  time  no 
one  could  guess. 

The  truth  finally  appeared,  however.  What  had 
seemed  mere  wilful  disobedience  on  the  part  of 
the  bullet,  turned  out  to  be  a  perfectly  natural 
effect  of  the  bent  gun  stock  acting  suddenly  on 
the  under  side  of  a  somewhat  flexible  barrel. 
When  an  ordinary  bar  of  steel  is  struck  hard  it 
will  bend  a  little,  and  the  hollow  bar  is  no  ex- 
ception. Therefore,  at  the  explosion,  the  stroke 
produced  under  the  barrel  forced  up  the  middle 
of  it,  causing  the  muzzle  of  it  to  tip  downward, 
just  as  the  outer  end  of  a  whip  stock  dips  when 
raised  by  the  hand  at  the  butt.  Any  flexible  rod 
held  in  the  hand  at  one  end  and  jerked  up  quickly 
will  show  you  how  this  happens.  In  the  bending 
of  the  thin  barrel  the  muzzle  is  pointing  slightly 
downward  when  the  bullet  departs,  and  hence  the 
missile  flies  low.  The  true  shooting  of  the  gun 
when  small  charges  were  used  was  then  easily 
explained,  for  the  milder  explosion  did  not  flex 
the  barrel,  and  so  the  bullet  passed  out  straight. 
As  this  bending  effect  is  naturally  more  marked 
on  long  barrels  than  on  short  ones,  you  will  notice 
that  as  the  length  of  the  tubes  is  increased  they 
are  made  thicker  and  stronger,  or  else  supported 


A  CONTEST  WITH  NATURAL  LAWS     97 

by  a  thick  piece  of  wood  underneath.  The  short 
barrel,  on  the  other  hand,  may  be,  and  usually  is, 
quite  thin  toward  the  muzzle,  as  compared  with 
its  longer  neighbor. 

But  no  matter  what  means  be  adopted  to  affect 
the  various  disturbing  effects  of  recoil,  it  is,  and 
always  has  been,  a  great  nuisance.  In  recogni- 
tion of  this  the  rifle  intended-  for  target  shooting 


FIG.  17. — To  prevent  the  bending  of  gun  barrels  under  the  shock 
of  firing  they  are  reinforced  with  a  piece  of  wood.  On  most 
military  rifles  this  extends  nearly  the  full  length  of  the 
barrel. 

is  made  considerably  heavier  in  proportion  to  its 
bullet  and  powder  charge  than  the  military  or 
sporting  arm.  The  weight  of  the  gun  lessens  the 
recoil  shock.  On  the  rifle  range  a  few  pounds  of 
extra  weight  are  no  objection,  because  the  weapon 
is  not  carried  long  or  far.  For  the  other  pur- 
poses, however,  low  weight  is  so  essential,  both 
for  quick  handling  and  easy  carriage,  that  both 
power  and  accuracy  must  give  way  to  some  extent 
to  lightness. 

The  force  of  recoil,  however,  cannot  be  foretold 
in  any  gun  even  after  we  have  the  weight  of  the 
weapon  itself,  the  weight  of  the  bullet  and  its 


98  THE  GUN  BOOK 

speed.  A  dirty  gun  will  kick  much  harder  than 
if  the  tube  is  smooth  and  bright;  anything  that 
clogs  the  path  of  the  leaden  missile  down  the 
barrel  increases  the  gas  pressure  behind  it,  and 
adds  to  the  recoil.  Therefore  where  the  rifle 
grooves  turn  sharply,  the  bullet  making  its  way 
along  and  around  their  course  is  considerably 
retarded,  gas  pressure  is  augmented,  and  both 
tube  and  bullet  are  acted  upon  more  violently. 
The  longer  the  body  of  the  bullet,  the  greater  will 
be  this  increased  friction.  On  the  other  hand,  if 
the  gun  be  sighted  to  allow  for  the  disturbance 
of  a  certain  amount  of  recoil,  accuracy  will  be 
destroyed  if  the  bullet  be  slightly  smaller  or  even 
softer  than  intended,  for  then  the  missile  will 
slide  out  of  the  tube  more  easily  than  expected, 
recoil  will  be  less  than  allowed  for,  and  if  the 
range  be  long,  the  shot  will  be  far  too  low. 

As  the  gun  barrel  grows  hot  it  expands,  allow- 
ing the  bullet  to  slip  out  more  readily.  Even 
when  the  sunshine  is  allowed  to  fall  upon  an  open 
box  of  cartridges  the  heat  absorbed  by  them 
causes  their  powder  charges  to  burn  more  sud- 
denly, thus  increasing  the  force  of  the  explosive 
and  accentuating  the  recoil.  Therefore  it  is  de- 
sirable to  keep  both  gun  and  ammunition  at  a 
uniform  temperature  for  successive  shots.  We 


A  CONTEST  WITH  NATURAL  LAWS     99 

see,  then,  what  an  exacting  master  is  this  force  of 
recoil  and  how  carefully  its  requirements  must 
be  complied  with. 

Understanding  of  the  principles  of  recoil,  then, 
teaches  two  important  lessons  to  the  shooter  who 
would  make  bull's-eyes : 

First,  the  ammunition  used  must  be  made  with 
great  accuracy,  must  be  uniform  in  every  par- 
ticular, and  not  tampered  with  in  any  way  after 
being  manufactured ;  otherwise  no  two  shots  will 
be  the  same,  for  the  gun  will  act  differently  each 
time;  second,  the  barrel  must  be  kept  clean  and 
shiny  throughout  its  length,  or  the  gas  pressures 
will  vary  behind  the  bullet,  and  indifferent  shoot- 
ing invariably  result. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  OLD  SMOOTH-BORE  AND  ITS 
SPHERICAL  BULLET 

THE  day  of  the  leaden  marble,  shot  from  an 
ungrooved  gun  barrel,  is  past,  probably  never  to 
return.  But  if  we  are  to  know  why  our  modern 
bullet  looks  more  like  a  sharpened  pencil  than 
like  a  marble,  and  how  our  rifle  has  gained  its 
wonderful  accuracy  at  long  distances,  the  ancient 
smooth-bore  and  its  workings  must  be  briefly 
mentioned. 

The  story  of  the  smooth-bore  has  to  do  chiefly 
with  its  defects,  but  at  that  there  is  no  more 
interesting  chapter  in  the  biography  of  the  gun. 
From  the  fourteenth  century,  when  hand  firearms 
first  came  into  use,  down  to  our  own  Civil  War, 
a  period  of  over  four  hundred  and  fifty  years, 
the  smooth-bore  was  the  usual  type  of  gun  barrel 
for  the  soldier.  The  missiles  first  used  in  it  were 

stones  and  arrows,  but  these  quickly  gave  way  to 

\  • 

the  bullet  of  lead.     That  metal,  fairly  plentiful 
even  in  those  days,  and  soft  enough  to  be  easily 

100 


THE  OLD  SMOOTH-BORE  101 

worked,  had  the  great  weight  with  small  bulk  so 
necessary  in  an  object  that  was  to  be  driven  far 
and  fast  through  the  air.  The  ancient  gunner 
was  not  long  either  in  finding  out  that  if  he  made 
his  bullet  into  the  form  of  a  true  sphere  it  would 
reach  its  mark  oftener  than  if  its  surface  were 
irregular.  There  is  nothing  remarkable  about 
this,  because  every  boy  knows  that  a  jagged  stone 
or  a  lopsided  ball  is  hard  to  throw  straight.  In- 
deed when  young  David  went  out  to  meet  the 
giant  Goliath  it  was  smooth  stones  from  the 
brook  that  he  chose  for  the  perilous  encounter. 

But  even  the  perfect  sphere  when  shot  from  the 
unrifled  barrel  had  so  little  accuracy  that  we  of 
today  are  inclined  to  look  upon  its  performance 
with  scorn.  While  the  ball  itself  could  be  made 
to  travel  a  half-mile  or  more,  the  hitting  of  a  mark 
the  size  of  a  man  at  two  hundred  yards  was  as 
much  a  matter  of  luck  as  of  skill.  Even  in  its 
palmiest  days  the  smooth-bore  was  never  reliable 
at  a  range  of  over  one  hundred  yards.  Its  one 
virtue  was  that  it  could  be  loaded  quickly  and 
easily,  and  on  this  account  it  held  its  place  against 
the  rifle  for  several  centuries  after  the  advan- 
tages of  the  grooved  barrel  were  well  known. 

The  great  objection  to  the  rifle  in  the  days  of 
muzzle-loading  lay  in  the  difficulty  and  delay  in 


102  THE  GUN  BOOK 

forcing  the  bullet  into  the  barrel.  The  ball  had 
to  be  slightly  larger  than  the  bore  in  order  to 
make  it  catch  the  grooves,  and  the  gunner  had  to 
use  main  strength  on  his  ramrod  to  get  the  lead 
down  the  barrel,  into  its  place.  After  the  firing 
of  a  few  shots  the  bore  had  to  be  cleaned  out, 
for  the  grimy  tube  then  refused  to  receive  the 
bullet  at  all.  To  the  soldier  in  battle  this  opera- 
tion was  almost  impossible,  though  the  hunter  did 
not  find  it  so  difficult.  With  the  musket  the  ball 
was  made  two  sizes  smaller  than  the  bore,  which 
permitted  it  to  slide  into  place  without  effort, 
even  when  partly  clogged  up  with  powder  ashes. 
The  time  thus  saved,  to  the  soldier  at  least,  was 
very  important. 

The  inaccuracy  of  the  smooth-bore  at  long 
ranges  had  the  effect  of  keeping  a  large  bore  and 
bullet  in  use  long  after  it  would  otherwise  have 
been  abandoned.  The  gunner  said  to  himself: 
"If  I  use  a  smaller  ball  I  can  shoot  a  greater 
distance,  but  if  I  can't  hit  anything  with  it  over 
two  hundred  yards  away,  what  is  the  use?  My 
twelve-pound  musket  will  carry  a  big  ball  for  that 
distance,  without  severe  recoil,  and  hit  a  harder 
blow  when  it  gets  there  than  the  small  one,  so 
I  might  as  well  use  the  big  hard-hitting  bullets." 
Following  out  this  thought,  therefore,  the  ancient 


THE  OLD  .SMOOTH-BORE  103 

musketeer  never  reduced  the  bore  of  his  weapon 
much  below  that  of  one  of  our  larger-sized  shot- 
guns. 

The  use  of  the  spherical  bullet  had  this  peculiar 
and  interesting  result :  if  a  man  wanted  to  use  a 
ball  of  a  certain  weight  it  had  to  be  of  a  certain 
size ;  he  had  no  control  whatever  over  its  dimen- 
sions. The  elongated  bullet  of  today  can  be  in- 
creased in  weight  by  simply  adding  to  its  length, 
without  enlarging  the  caliber  of  the  gun.  With 
the  sphere,  however,  this  was  impossible.  Thus 
if  you  decided  that  you  wanted  a  gun  that  would 
shoot  a  ball  weighing  one  ounce,  you  turned  to  a 
table  showing  that  such  a  sphere  of  lead  would 
be  .652  of  an  inch  in  diameter,  and  made  your 
gun,  or  had  it  made,  accordingly. 

It  was  these  curious  facts  that  gave  rise  to  the 
custom  of  describing  different  sizes  of  bore  by 
reference  to  the  weight  and  not  to  the  diameter 
of  the  bullets  used.  A  gun  shooting  an  ounce  ball, 
for  instance,  was  " sixteen  gauge,"  because  a 
pound  of  lead  would  provide  sixteen  balls,  and  so 
on.  This  system  we  still  use  for  the  shotgun; 
though  in  our  rifles,  with  their  long  bullets,  the 
plan  will  not  work,  and  we  designate  the  various 
bores  by  their  diameters,  in  fractions  of  an  inch. 
There  is  considerable  confusion  in  this  system  at 


104  THE  GUN.  BOOK 

present  because  calibers  are  sometimes  given  to 
include  the  depth  of  the  rifling  and  sometimes 
not;  the  practice  is  growing,  however,  to  des- 
ignate bores  by  their  dimensions  before  being 
rifled. 

The  musket  ball  often  failed  to  reach  its 
mark,  except  at  short  ranges,  because  of  the  vio- 
lent resistance  and  friction  of  the  air  as  it  whizzed 
along.  While  we  are  inclined  to  think  of  the 
bullet  as  "flying"  or  "sailing"  through  the  at- 
mosphere and  frequently  use  such  airy-fairy 
words  to  describe  its  passage,  in  real  truth  its 
headway  is  won  only  by  furious  contest.  The 
air  which  seems  so  soft  and  yielding  when  we 
move  slowly  through  it,  becomes  stubborn  and 
almost  rigid  to  an  object  forced  into  it  at  high 
speed.  Those  who  have  struggled  in  breasting 
a  gale  blowing  fifty  miles  an  hour  can  form  some 
faint  idea  of  the  resistance  the  bullet  has  to  meet 
and  overcome  in  speeding  at  the  rate  of  fifteen 
to  thirty  miles  a  minute.  Only  by  recalling  these 
facts  can  we  realize  what  a  difficult  thing  it  is  to 
drive  a  missile  truly  to  a  distant  mark. 

Of  course  the  musket  ball  was  never  round  to 
a  hair's  breadth,  and  was  frequently  a  little 
rough  on  one  side  or  the  dther.  Sometimes,  too, 
unequal  cooling  would  make  one  part  of  it  denser 


THE  OLD  SMOOTH-BORE  105 

or  heavier  than  the  rest.     All  of  these  defects 
helped  to  make  precise  shooting  impossible. 

But  the  most  powerful  and  persistent  agency 
that  caused  the  spherical  bullet  to  wander  from 
its  true  course  was  the  spinning  motion  it  almost 

A 


FIG.  18. — Musket  ball  leaving  the  muzzle  with  spin  imparted  by 
the  final  scrape  it  receives  against  the  bottom  of  the  barrel. 
Being  smaller  in  diameter  than  the  tube  there  is  no  telling 
which  side  of  the  barrel  will  touch  the  missile  last  and 
hence  the  direction  of  spin  imparted  is  always  doubtful. 


always  had  and  which  produced  unequal  pres- 
sures in  the  air  in  front  of  it.  Let  us  see  just 
how  this  unfortunate  result  came  about.  It  will 
be  well,  however,  first  to  point  out  how  the 
smooth-bore  imparted  to  its  bullet  the  damaging 
spin.  For  ease  in  loading  you  will  remember 
that  the  ball  was  always  smaller  than  the  bore, 
and  this  permitted  it  to  rattle  back  and  forth  from 
side  to  side  and  from  top  to  bottom  during  its 
whole  journey  down  the  gun  barrel.  When  it 
arrived  at  the  muzzle  the  final  scrape  it  received 
against  the  side  of  the  tube  gave  it  a  whirling 
motion  which  it  would  retain  during  its  flight. 
Probably  no  bullet  ever  left  the  muzzle  of  a 


106  THE  GUN  BOOK 

musket  without  revolving  more  or  less,  but  there 
was  no  way  of  telling  beforehand  how  fast  or  in 
what  direction  this  motion  would  be. 

A  glance  at  the  accompanying  illustrations  will 
make  this  process  clear. 

The  effect  of  air  pressure  against  a  spinning 
ball  will  be  more  readily  understood  if  we  begin 
with  a  general  view  of  the  contest  between  the 


FIG.  19. — BULLET  FORCING  ITS  WAY  THROUGH  THE  RESISTING  AIR 

two  opposing  forces.  In  Fig.  19  the  bullet  is 
seen  forcing  its  way  through  the  resisting  air. 
The  latter,  being  elastic,  is  compressed  to  a 
greater  density  directly  in  front  of  the  missile, 
and  being  also  fluid,  flows  as  rapidly  as  it  can 
to  the  rear. 

Herein  lies  the  particular  point  now  to  be  re- 
membered— the  air  passing  from  front  to  rear  at 
great  speed  scrubs  hard  against  the  outer  edges 
of  the  ball,  causing  heavy  friction  there.  No 
matter  how  smooth  the  surface  of  the  lead  may 
be,  this  friction  is  still  severe.  Now  suppose  that 
in  addition  to  the  violent  forward  motion  of  the 


THE  OLD  SMOOTH-BORE  107 

ball,  we  give  it  a  rapid  spin  from  the  top  down- 
ward. The  situation  will  then  be  as  in  Fig.  20. 
The  upper  surface  of  the  ball  will  be  throwing 
air  forward  while  the  lower  side  will  be  casting  it 
toward  the  rear.  The  result,  of  course,  is  that 
the  air  is  " piled  up"  near  the  top  of  the  missile 
while  at  the  bottom  the  air  is  being  thrust  out  of 
the  way.  There  being  more  air  pressure,  there- 
fore, at  the  top  of  the  ball  than  below,  following 


Mv-i\. 


FIG.  20. — EFFECT  OF  DOWNWARD  SPIN  OF  BULLET 

the  line  of  least  resistance,  it  tends  to  curve  down- 
ward; in  other  words,  the  ball,  finding  its  path 
more  obstructed  above,  chooses  the  easier  way 
below. 

So  great  is  this  curving  effect  that  a  golf  ball 
with  its  rough  surface  can  be  made  to  describe 
almost  a  semicircle  by  imparting  to  it  a  very  rapid 
spin  with  the  face  of  the  club  in  striking  it.  While 
the  musket  ball  probably  never  curved  to  this  ex- 
tent, it  is  not  difficult  to  see  how  even  a  slight 
bending  of  its  course  would  make  straight  shoot- 
ing difficult,  if  not  impossible. 

If  the  spin  be  from  the  bottom  upward,  as  in 


108  THE  GUN  BOOK 

Fig.  21,  the  course  of  the  ball  will  be  just  the 
reverse  of  that  shown  in  Fig.  20  and  the  ball 
will  tend  to  rise.  The  effect  of  a  spin  from  left  to 
right  will  be  readily  grasped  if  you  imagine  your- 
self standing  above  the  ball  in  Fig.  20,  instead 
of  at  the  side  as  it  passes  you.  It  will  curve 
toward  the  right.  Similarly  the  ball  in  Fig.  21, 


FIG.  21. — EFFECT  OF  UPWARD  SPIN  OF  BULLET 

viewed  from  above,  will  show  the  result  of  a  spin 
from  right  to  left.  In  this  case  the  missile  will 
deviate  to  the  left-hand  side.  A  study  of  these 
illustrations  and  explanations  leads  us  to  the  gen- 
eral rule,  as  follows :  a  spinning  sphere,  traveling 
forward  in  the  air,  tends  to  curve  in  the  direction 
in  which  its  front  surface  is  revolving. 

While  we  have  described  only  what  may  be 
called  four  of  the  cardinal  spins,  that  is,  upward, 
downward,  and  from  right  and  left,  it  is  obvious 
that  numberless  combinations  of  these  motions 
are  possible.  It  may  be  partly  up  and  partly  to 
the  left,  or  down  and  toward  the  right,  each 
change  in  the  direction  of  the  spin  giving  a  dif- 
ferent course  to  the  bullet.  In  the  light  of  this 


THE  OLD  SMOOTH-BORE  109 

great  variety  of  paths  which  the  musket  ball  may 
take  the  wonder  is  not  that  it  shot  so  badly,  but 
that  it  could  hit  any  mark  whatever. 

But,  as  the  baseball  pitcher  knows,  the  rapidly 
spinning  ball  does  not  begin  to  curve  greatly  until 
its  forward  speed  begins  to  slacken.  The  spin- 
ning motion  is  more  enduring  than  the  motion 
forward,  and  while  the  ball  is  slowing  up  in  its 
advance  its  rapid  revolutions  continue  to  pile  up 
the  air  on  one  side  and  to  scatter  it  at  the  other, 
causing  a  greater  deflection  within  a  shorter  dis- 
tance. Thus  it  can  be  seen  how  a  musket  ball 
could  travel  fairly  straight  for  a  hundred  yards 
or  so  and  then  begin  to  wander  off  on  a  path  of 
its  own. 

There  are,  however,  two  important  directions 
the  spin  can  take  which  we  have  not  yet  discussed. . 
These  are  produced  when  the  ball  is  made  to 
revolve  around  an  axis  parallel  with  the  gun 
barrel;  that  is,  the  top  of  the  missile  passes  to- 
ward east  or  west,  when  the  gun  is  pointed  north 
or  south.  In  these  two  spins  it  will  be  noticed 
that  the  face  presented  by  the  bullet  to  the  air 
never  changes,  so  that  the  curving  effect  we  have 
just  studied  in  the  ball  from  the  smooth-bore  is 
entirely  avoided.  The  astonishing  difference  is 
that  whereas  all  of  the  myriad  of  spins  from  the 


110  THE  GUN  BOOK 

smooth-bore  tend  to  carry  the  bullet  out  of  its 
course,  the  two  spins  last  mentioned  serve  to  keep 
the  missile  steadfast  on  its  intended  way.  This 
is  the  marvel  worked  by  the  rifled  gun  barrel, 
which  is  the  subject  of  the  next  chapter. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  SPHERICAL  BALL  AND  THE  RIFLED 
BARREL 

As  long  ago  as  the  year  1500  there  seem  to  have 
been  men  in  Europe  who  realized  that  the  spher- 
ical ball  would  travel  straighter  if  it  could  be 
made  to  spin  at  right  angles  to  the  gun  barrel. 
We  believe  this  because  about  that  time  mention 
begins  to  be  made  of  grooved  barrels  called  "rif- 
feln,"  then  known  and  being  used  in  Germany 
and  Austria. 

It  has  been  said  that  these  first  grooves  were 
not  of  spiral  form,  but  were  cut  straight  down  the 
barrel  merely  to  catch  and  hold  the  powder  ash, 
which  was  very  abundant  in  the  faulty  powder 
of  that  day,  and  thereby  keep  it  from  clogging 
the  bore.  There  does  not  seem  to  be  much  evi- 
dence, however,  to  sustain  this  theory.  At  any 
rate  not  long  after  the  date  mentioned  we  know 
certainly  that  guns  were  made  with  the  true  spiral 
grooves  of  the  rifle. 

Whether  these  early  rifle  makers  knew  the  rea- 
111 


THE  GUN  BOOK 

sons  why  their  new  invention  shot  straighter  than 
the  smooth-bore,  or  whether  they  simply  discov- 
ered the  fact  and  put  it  to  use,  we  cannot  say.  But 
among  men  who  knew  nothing  of  Newton's  the- 
ories of  gravity  and  laws  governing  spinning 
bodies,  it  is  not  hard  to  believe  that  the  conduct 
of  the  rotating  bullet,  in  detail  at  least,  was  still 
a  mystery. 

Of  course  they  had  that  most  ancient  of  re- 
volving toys,  the  top,  which  stood  up  and  spun 
upon  its  point.  From  this  some  inkling  may  have 
been  had  of  the  principle  involved.  But  if  much 
was  known  about  the  forces  of  rotation  and  air 
friction  on  spinning  bodies  four  hundred  years 
ago,  the  knowledge  was  lost  for  a  time  because 
it  is  only  within  the  memory  of  men  still  living 
that  satisfactory  explanations  have  been  given  to 
us  regarding  these  things. 

It  is  easy  to  understand  from  what  has 
been  said  in  the  last  chapter  that  a  ball  sent 
forward,  keeping  the  same  face  toward  the  front, 
will  gain  the  great  advantage  of  having  its  air 
friction  more  nearly  equal  all  around  its  outer 
edges.  The  spins  imparted  by  the  smooth-bore 
came,  as  we  have  seen,  from  the  final  scrape  of 
the  barrel  against  one  side  of  the  ball  as  it  left 
the  muzzle,  all  of  which  possible  spins  caused  the 


THE  RIFLED  BARREL  113 

front  of  the  missile  to  keep  changing.  The  secret 
of  straighter  shooting  lies  in  the  avoidance  of 
these  chance  spins  and  the  imparting  to  the  bullet 
of  a  rotation  from  left  or  right,  about  an  axis 
parallel  with  the  gun  barrel. 

The  manner  in  which  the  rotating  rifle  bullet 
tends  to  keep  a  single  face  forward  while  travel- 
ing to  its  mark  can  best  be  understood  by  a  brief 
study  of  the  top. 

When  spun  on  table  or  floor  the  top  has  a 
strange  desire  to  stand  up  until  its  speed  fails, 
when  it  yields  to  the  force  of  gravity  and  tumbles 
over  on  its  side.  If  dropped  through  the  air  from 
a  high  place  while  spinning  its  point  will  also 
tend  to  remain  in  the  same  direction  it  was  when 
released.  If  dropped  point  downward  the  top 
will  strive  to  stay  in  that  position  until  it  lands. 
If  tilted  to  one  side  or  the  other  the  same 
peculiarity  continues.  These  singular  laws 
are  obeyed  by  all  spinning  bodies,  including  the 
bullet. 

If  unfamiliar  with  the  forces  of  rotation,  it  will 
be  well  for  the  reader  actually  to  take  a  top  of 
the  spring  type  and  drop  it,  while  it  is  in  rapid 
motion,  from  a  height.  Stand  on  a  chair  and 
drop  it  upon  a  bed,  or  better  still  get  up  on  a 
house  and  let  it  fall  upon  turf  below.  The  prac- 


114 


THE  GUN  BOOK 


I/  . 


FIG.  22. — Experiment  with  a  spinning  top,  showing  how  the 
spinning  body  tends  to  maintain  the  position  assumed  when 
released.  It  must  be  remembered  that  this  is  only  a  tend- 
ency, which  can  be  overcome  when  any  force  or  obstacle  of 
sufficient  power  intervenes.  A  new  position  thus  given  will 
then  be  maintained  until  some  exterior  influence  again  inter- 
feres. 


THE  RIFLED  BARREL  115 

tical  experiment  will  be  better  than  pages  of  de- 
scription. 

First  drop  the  toy  without  spinning  it  at  all 
and  see  how  it  wavers  unsteadily  in  falling.  Then 
set  it  to  spinning  and  drop  it  point  downward 
and  observe  its  steadiness,  and  how  it  lands 
nearly  in  the  same  position  as  that  in  which  it 
started.  Then  try  the  experiment  with  the  point 
extending  at  different  angles.  If  the  distance 
fallen  through  be  not  too  great  the  top  will  al- 
ways alight  without  changing  its  position.  Even 
if  the  point  be  turned  upward  the  same  behavior 
will  be  noted. 

Now,  if  that  top  were  made  of  solid  lead,  put 
into  a  gun  barrel,  and  fired  while  spinning,  it 
would  try  to  keep  its  original  position  just  as 
when  it  fell  through  the  air  from  a  height.  If 
it  started  point  forward  and  were  spinning  rap- 
idly enough  it  would  reach  the  target  that  way. 
If  the  shank  and  point  were  cut  away  and  the 
body  reduced  to  spherical  form,  you  would  have 
an  old-fashioned  bullet  which  once  set  spinning 
would  act  just  as  it  did  when,  having  point  and 
shank,  you  called  it  a  top  and  dropped  it  from 
your  hand. 

Many  plans  have  been  devised  for  giving  to 
the  bullet  the  desired  spin  at  right  angles  to  the 


116  THE  GUN  BOOK 

barrel,  though  the  only  successful  plan  has  been 
the  spiral  groove.  The  bullet  has  been  made  in 
auger-like  shape  to  be  spun  by  the  air  as  it  passed 
along;  it  has  been  given  wings  to  accomplish  the 
same  result;  and  has  even  been  arranged  with 
twisting  holes  through  it,  by  means  of  which  the 
air  in  rushing  through  was  expected  to  give  the 
turning  impulse.  All  these  devices  have,  however, 
had  to  give  way  to  the  simple  channels  cut  into 
the  gun  barrel. 

The  spherical  bullet,  when  used  in  the  muzzle- 
loading  rifle,  was  slightly  larger  than  the  main 
bore,  so  that  it  had  to  be  rammed  down  the  barrel. 
This  operation  forced  the  soft  lead  into  the 
grooves  and  made  the  missile  follow  the  winding 
course  until  it  reached  its  place  above  the  powder 
at  the  breech.  Then  when  the  gun  was  fired  the 
ball  came  out  still  gripped  by  the  spiral  channels 
which  made  it  turn  rapidly  in  the  desired  direc- 
tion— at  right  angles  to  the  barrel.  Sometimes 
the  grooves  turned  toward  the  right  and  some- 
times to  the  left,  either  direction  serving  the 
purpose. 

For  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  after  the 
merits  of  the  rifled  barrel  became  known  it  lay 
practically  unused  because  of  the  difficulty  of 
loading  it.  By  the  exertion  of  much  muscular 


THE  RIFLED  BARREL  117 

power  a  man  could  force  the  lead  down  a  clean 
barrel,  but  after  a  shot  or  two  had  been  fired 
the  inner  surface  of  the  tube  became  gummed  up 
by  powder  ash,  and  a  thorough  cleaning  was  im- 
mediately necessary.  Even  the  starting  of  the 
bullet  into  the  muzzle  was  so  hard  that  sometimes 
a  wooden  mallet  was  carried  by  the  rifleman  with 
which  to  hammer  the  ball  into  the  mouth  of  the 
tube,  and  a  heavy  iron  ramrod  was  always  neces- 
sary to  jam  the  projectile  down  into  place.  So, 
remarkable  as  the  rifle  was  known  to  be  in  giving 
accuracy  to  its  bullet,  these  drawbacks  kept  it  out 
of  common  use. 

It  was  in  North  America  that  the  rifle  was  first 
to  come  into  its  own.  In  Europe  the  principal  use 
made  of  guns  was  in  warfare,  in  which  the  sol- 
diers were  accustomed  to  come  close  together 
before  commencing  to  fight.  Here  quick  shooting 
was  of  far  more  importance  than  accuracy  at  long 
ranges.  The  smooth-bore,  with  its  loose-fitting 
bullet,  could  be  loaded  and  fired  twice  as  fast  as 
the  rifle,  and  a  begrimed  barrel  gave  little  hin- 
drance. Its  bullet  always  traveled  with  the  curv- 
ing flight  already  described,  while  the  open  space 
around  it  in  the  barrel  allowed  so  much  gas  to 
escape  that  high  speed  and  hence  great  distance 
were  impossible.  Therefore,  though  the  smooth- 


118 


THE  GUN  BOOK 


FIG.    23. — LOADING   A 
SPHERICAL    BULLET 
WITH  A  PATCH. 
The  use  of  a  bit  of 
greased   rag   called   a 
patch   in   loading  the 
rifle    with    a    spheri- 
cal  bullet,   discovered 
about  the  year   1700, 
gave    added    ease    in 
ramming    the    bullet 
home  and  greatly  in- 
creased   the    accuracy 
and  range. 


bore  answered  the  European 
purposes  very  well,  it  did  not 
serve  for  Americans,  who  used 
the  gun  in  a  different  manner. 
The  Indian  was  fought,  not 
in  the  serried  ranks  common 
on  the  other  side  of  the  At- 
lantic, but  in  so-called  "irregu- 
lar formations,"  every  man 
taking  cover  and  advancing 
from  tree  to  tree  or  along  the 
ground,  shielded  by  under- 
growth. Volley  firing  was  out 
of  the  question,  for  the  usual 
target  was  simply  an  enemy's 
head.  Marksmanship  at  con- 
siderable ranges  was  called  for 
here,  and  the  straight-shooting 
rifle  gave  conspicuous  service 
at  this  work.  The  French  and 
Indian  War  was  fought  largely 
on  the  same  plan.  Then,  too, 
the  needs  of  the  hunter  in  fire- 
arms were  almost  identical 
with  those  of  the  pioneer  sol- 
dier, for  it  was  the  true  flight 
of  a  single  bullet,  and  not  the 


THE  RIFLED  BARREL  119 

quick  firing  of  many,  that  filled  the  camp  kettle 
with  food. 

Sometime  about  the  year  1700  the  American, 
in  his  search  for  an  arm  to  fit  his  special  require- 
ments, discovered  a  way  to  load  his  rifle  more 
quickly  and  easily  than  before.  He  found  that 
if  he  made  his  spherical  ball  just  the  size  of  his 
gun  bore,  or  perhaps  a  shade  smaller,  and  then 
wrapped  it  in  a  bit  of  well-greased  rag,  called  a 
patch,  it  could  be  slipped  into  the  barrel  much 
more  readily  than  could  the  larger  ball  of  plain 
lead.  On  firing,  too,  it  proved  to  have  spin 
enough  to  keep  it  on  its  course  during  a  fairly 
long  flight.  The  fabric  thus  pressed  into  the 
grooves  not  only  prevented  leakage  of  gas  at  the 
side  of  the  bullet,  but  served  to  twist  the  missile 
as  well.  It  was  not,  of  course,  as  tough  as  the 
channeled  lead  would  have  been,  so  the  grooves 
were  given  a  more  gradual  slope,  causing  a  rather 
slow  rotation,  but  even  such  as  it  was,  giving  re- 
sults far  beyond  those  possible  in  the  smooth-bore. 
The  loading  was  still  a  slow  process,  but  for  the 
needs  of  the  pioneer  a  very  satisfactory  arm 
was  obtained.  From  this  time  the  rifle  was 
for  a  century  to  be  a  distinctively  American 
weapon. 

The  patched  rifle  bullet  would  hit  a  mark  of 


120  THE  GUN  BOOK 

definite  size  at  double  the  distance  the  musket 
ball  was  capable  of.  The  latter  could  be  gen- 
erally relied  upon  to  strike  a  man  or  a  deer  at 
one  hundred  yards,  while  the  rifle  extended  the 
distance  to  two  hundred,  an  advantage  so  great 
that  a  little  thought  is  necessary  here  to  reveal 
the  full  value  of  the  new  arm. 

The  bullet  being  tight-fitting,  the  gas  pressure 
behind  it  was  much  greater  than  the  smooth-bore 
permitted.  This  resulted,  of  course,  in  higher 
velocity  for  the  missile.  But  at  the  same  time, 
as  we  might  expect  from  what  we  have  learned 
in  the  chapter  on  recoil,  the  gun  kicked  hard.  To 
obviate  this,  powder  charges  were  at  first  re- 
duced; but  as  this  gave  a  slow,  short-ranged 
bullet,  the  caliber  was  finally  made  smaller  than 
that  of  the  smooth-bore  and  the  ball  thereby 
speeded  up  again.  For  we  must  remember  the 
rule  that  to  keep  down  recoil  a  heavy  bullet 
must  be  sent  off  slowly,  while  only  a  light 
one  can  be  given  high  velocity  without  exces- 
sive shock  to  gun  and  firer.  So  small  did  the 
bore  of  the  improved  rifle  appear  beside  the 
more  capacious  barrel  of  the  musket  that 
the  name  "  squirrel  gun  "  was  applied  to  it  in 
derision. 

In  those  days  guns  were  made  in  small  shops 


THE  RIFLED  BARREL  121 

by  gunsmiths,  and  frequently  also  by  village 
blacksmiths  at  the  same  forges  where  they 
molded  horseshoes  and  mended  wagons.  Conse- 
quently there  was  little  uniformity  in  the  guns 
turned  out  in  caliber,  length  of  barrel,  slope  and 
depth  of  rifling,  or  weight  of  the  piece.  Each 
artisan  followed  either  his  own  ideas  or  those  of 
his  customer.  The  rifle  of  the  early  pioneers, 
however,  was  anything  but  a  "squirrel  gun"  in 
fact.  It  usually  shot  a  bullet  of  half  an  ounce, 
which  at  the  high  velocity  given  it  was  far  more 
powerful  and  of  longer  range  than  the  ball  de- 
livered by  the  more  formidable-looking  but  really 
inefficient  musket. 

In  the  Eastern  states,  as  Indian  fighting  waned 
and  big  game  was  killed  off  or  was  driven  away, 
the  caliber  of  the  native  rifle  grew  quite  small, 
sometimes  even  moderate-sized  buckshot  being 
used  as  projectiles.  The  smaller  size  of  the  game 
to  be  killed  and  scarcity  of  ammunition  brought 
this  about.  But  these  weapons  must  not  be  con- 
fused with  the  more  powerful  rifle  which  pre- 
ceded them  and  was  used  in  pushing  the  Indian 
and  buffalo  westward  for  a  hundred  years  after 
the  Atlantic  seaboard  .states  became  well  popu- 
lated. 

For  the  soldier  fighting  in  the  ranks  the  smooth- 


THE  GUN  BOOK 

bore,  however,  remained  the  standard  arm,  even 
in  America,  down  to  the  time  of  our  Mexican 
War  in  1845.  There  were  some  used  also  as  late 
as  the  Civil  War.  The  military  idea  was  still 
to  get  up  close  to  the  enemy  and  blaze  away  as 
fast  as  possible,  while  the  rifleman  in  the  forest 
chose  to  fire  more  slowly  and  make  his  hits  sure. 
He  was  really  far  ahead  in  the  end  so  far  as 
execution  was  concerned.  But  then,  in  organized 
war,  the  object  is  not  so  much  to  try  to  kill  all 
your  enemies  promptly  as  to  frighten  them,  make 
them  break  their  ranks  and  run,  then  to  capture 
prisoners  and  materials.  For  this  purpose  the 
quick-shooting,  noise-making  smooth-bore  was,  of 
course,  better  fitted  than  the  rifle  operating  more 
slowly. 

In  Washington's  little  armies  in  the  Revolu- 
tion the  bulk  of  the  men  were  armed  with  smooth- 
bores, but  numbers  of  the  best  shots  were  sent 
out  with  their  rifles  to  act  as  sharpshooters. 
These  venturesome,  clear-eyed  fellows  wrought 
great  damage  to  the  British  forces  by  picking  off 
officers  at  distances  which  surprised  the  Euro- 
peans. As  there  were  no  rifles  at  all  in  the  in- 
vading armies  at  first,  the  Americans  had  a  great 
advantage  in  long-range  fighting ;  but  as  the  war 
went  on  the  British,  too,  manufactured  rifles  and 


THE  RIFLED  BARREL  123 

used  them,  thus  by  imitation  flattering  the  home- 
made arms  of  their  adversaries. 

The  British,  by  their  own  admissions,  were 
never  able  to  cope  with  the  patriot  riflemen  in 
accuracy  of  shooting,  for  the  native  had  been 
brought  up  from  boyhood  with  firearms  in  his 
hands.  In  fact  the  rifle  can  be  said  to  have  had 
its  real  birth  in  North  America  both  as  a  hunting 
and  a  military  weapon.  Braddock  was  defeated 
because  he  thought  his  solid  ranks,  firing  smooth- 
bores at  short  range,  could  drive  from  his  path 
the  rifle-armed  French  and  Indians.  He  was  bit- 
terly undeceived,  and  the  Yankee  sharpshooters, 
by  their  accustomed  long-range,  straight  shoot- 
ing, prevented  a  massacre.  The  English  military 
men  did  not  learn  the  lesson  there  that  Wash- 
ington already  knew  and  saw  again  exem- 
plified. But  from  the  time  of  the  later  days 
of  the  Revolution,  the  rifle-armed  sharpshooter 
became  an  important  part  of  all  European 
armies. 

It  was  not,  however,  until  the  bloody  battle  of 
New  Orleans  in  1815  that  the  rifle  revealed  to 
the  world  its  true  value  as  a  weapon  of  war. 
Repeatedly  as  the  British  had  suffered  from  rifle 
fire  on  this  continent  before,  they  were  still  un- 
able to  grasp  the  fact  that  a  new  weapon  had  to 


THE  GUN  BOOK 

be  faced  in  America.  The  surprise  they  were 
to  get  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  was  much 
like  that  they  administered  to  the  French  with 
their  long  bows  at  the  Battle  of  Crecy. 

The  Americans  were  intrenched  behind  earth- 
works (only  a  very  few  cotton  bales  were  used), 
and  General  Packenham  expected  to  march  up 
close,  as  usual,  and  then  with  a  bayonet  rush 
clear  out  the  defenders.  His  plans  would  have 
worked  out  correctly,  in  all  likelihood,  had  Jack- 
son's men  been  armed  with  smooth-bores;  but 
must  of  them  carried  rifles,  the  range  and  accu- 
racy of  which  the  British  general  did  not  foresee. 
Instead  of  having  only  a  hundred  yards  to  run 
forward  under  heavy  fire,  as  Packenham  antici- 
pated, the  American  bullets  began  to  cut  down 
the  advancing  men  at  three  hundred  yards,  with 
the  result  that  they  never  got  close  enough  to 
use  their  bayonets.  Thus  the  rifle  proved  again 
its  value  against  regular  troops,  as  it  had  done 
before  against  Braddock;  and  as  it  had  been 
doing  for  a  century  on  this  continent,  in  hunting 
and  in  irregular  warfare. 

When  the  American  boy,  therefore,  takes  up 
his  rifle  he  may  rest  assured  that  he  is  in  g*ood 
right  entitled  to  use  it  as  his  own,  for  it  was 
his  ancestors  who  found  it,  a  cast-off  European 


THE  RIFLED  BARREL  125 

experiment;  and  by  thought,  invention,  and  skil- 
ful handling  brought  it  to  such  a  high  state  of 
perfection  that  the  world  was  compelled  to  give 
it  attention  and  finally  adopt  it  as  the  standard 
firearm. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  LONG  BULLET  AND  THE  MUZZLE- 
LOADING  RIFLE 

WHEN  a  stake  is  to  be  driven  into  the  ground 
everybody  knows  that  it  will  go  down  more  easily 
if  pointed  and  not  too  thick.  This  simple  truth 
applies  equally  to  the  missile  that  is  to  be  driven 
at  high  speed  through  the  air.  The  greater  its 
cross-section  and  the  blunter  its  nose,  the  slower 
and  shorter  will  be  its  journey;  for  it  has  not 
only  to  displace  more  air,  but  does  it  more 
clumsily  than  an  object  that  is  thin  and  sharp. 

Upon  the  same  principle  the  power  of  a  man's 
arm  will  send  the  slender  arrow  several  times  as 
far  as  the  same  strength  can  cast  a  stone  of  like 
weight.  Knowing  this,  the  gunner  had  always 
realized  that,  if  he  could  shoot  a  projectile  more 
like  the  arrow  in  form  and  less  like  the  bulky 
stone,  he  could  greatly  increase  the  efficiency  of 
his  weapon.  In  the  smooth-bore,  however,  elon- 
gated bullets  could  never  be  used  because  of  their 
tendency  to  fly  end  over  end,  and  consequently 

126 


THE  MUZZLE-LOADING  RIFLE          127 

anywhere  but  to  their  target.  The  well-balanced 
sphere,  therefore,  was  the  only  permissible  form 
of  bullet  for  the  old-fashioned  musket.  But  the 
merits  of  the  pointed  bullet  were  so  evident  and 
so  great  that  inventors  working  on  firearms,  espe- 
cially in  America,  never  ceased  trying  to  adapt 
it  to  use  in  the  gun.  Accordingly  then,  after  the 
rifled  barrel  had  showed  its  ability  to  spin  the 
spherical  ball  far  and  true,  it  was  only  natural 
that  the  effect  of  the  spiral  groove  upon  the  long 
bullet  should  be  tested  out.  These  experiments 
were  in  part  highly  pleasing,  for  it  was  found 
that  the  spin  imparted  by  the  rifle — at  right  an- 
gles to  the  gun  barrel — would  hold  the  new  mis- 
sile point  foremost,  just  as  it  kept  the  same  face 
of  the  sphere  always  to  the  front.  This  dis- 
covery was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  in  the 
annals  of  the  gun,  for  though  not  put  to  practical 
use  until  long  after,  the  principle  proved  was 
in  time  to  give  us  our  modern  rifle. 

It  was  easy,  of  course,  to  make  the  long,  pointed 
bullet,  for  lead  could  be  melted  and  molded  into 
any  form.  But  after  being  made,  how  was  it  to 
be  loaded!  There  was  the  rub.  The  leaden 
sphere,  which  only  touched  the  barrel  at  its  ex- 
treme outer  edges,  was  forced  into  the  muzzle 
and  rammed  home  with  difficulty.  How,  then, 


128  THE  GUN  BOOK 

was  the  hurried  rifleman  to  force  into  his  grooved 
barrel  the  cylinder-shaped  missile  with  long 
straight  sides,  requiring  channels  to  be  cut  into 
it  throughout  its  full  length!  The  task  was 
plainly  impossible.  On  this  account  the  sphere 
kept  its  place  long  after  the  superiority  of  the 
pointed  projectile  had  been  demonstrated. 


FIG.  24. — DELVIGNE  BULLET 

And  breech  chamber,  showing  how  by  ramming  the  missile  against 
the  constricting  shoulder  it  could  be  spread  so  as  to  come 
into  contact  with  the  walls  of  the  barrel  and  be  spun  by 
the  rifling.  The  bullet  thus  deformed  would  not  keep  its 
course. 

Up  to  1840  there  were  many  attempts  to  pro- 
duce an  easy-loading  rifle,  and  especially  one  that 
would  use  the  long  bullet.  The  French  had  in- 
vented two  guns  using  spherical  balls  that  went 
into  the  barrel  loosely,  to  be  expanded  after 
reaching  the  bullet  chamber  at  the  breech.  These, 
the  Delvigne  and  the  Thouvenin  types,  were 
named  for  their  inventors.  In  the  first  the  barrel 
narrowed  at  the  powder  chamber,  forming  a 
shoulder.  Against  this  the  bullet,  after  -being 


THE  MUZZLE-LOADING  RIFLE 

dropped  into  the  tube,  was  pounded  with  a  heavy 
ramrod,  which  caused  it  to  spread  and  thus  fill 
the  grooves.  The  Thouvenin  had  a  stem  which 
projected  upward  from  the  breech  end  to  serve 
as  an  anvil,  against  which  the  bullet  was  struck 
with  the  ramrod  to  expand  it.  Both  of  these  sys- 
tems were  used  to  some  extent  even  in  French 


FIG.  25. — THOUVENIN  CHAMBER  WITH"  BULLET  IN  PLACE 
The  rod  projecting  through  the  powder  formed  an  anvil  which 
caused  the  bullet  to  expand  when  struck  by  a  heavy  ramrod. 

armies,  but  were  finally  given  up,  for  the  bullet 
was  so  deformed  in  the  expanding  operation  that 
it  would  not  fly  straight. 

In  1725  a  Spaniard  had  invented  a  new  type 
of  rifling  and  bullet  which  a  century  later  at- 
tracted much  attention  under  the  name  Bruns- 
wick system.  It  had  only  two  grooves,  but  these 
were  deep  and  placed  opposite  each  other  in  the 
barrel.  The  bullet  was  of  the  spherical  type,  but 
had  a  ridge  around  its  middle  to  fit  into  the 
grooves.  The  idea  here  was  to  prepare  the  twist- 
ing appliances  beforehand  and  so  avoid  the  neces- 


130  THE  GUN  BOOK 

sity  of  cutting  channels  into  the  body  of  the  bullet 
by  main  force  in  loading.  The  idea  was  excellent ; 
but  the  gun  gave  poor  results,  because  the  bullet, 
being  of  an  irregular  form,  did  not  fly  truly. 
The  gun  itself  passed  into  disuse,  but  the  idea 
lived  to  occupy  attention  for  a  long  time  after. 


FIG.  26. — BULLET  AND  MUZZLE  OF  THE  BRUNSWICK  RIFLE 
The  barrel  had  two  grooves  opposite  each  other,  into  which  the 
belted  sphere  fitted.  These  grooves  proceeding  in  spirals 
from  breech  to  muzzle  caused  the  projectile  to  rotate.  Foul- 
ing of  the  barrel  made  the  bullet  hard  to  load  and  its 
unbalanced  form  caused  it  to  fly  wildly. 

The  Brunswick  system  led  to  two  noteworthy 
efforts  in  making  long  bullets  that  would  load 
easily.  These  were  the  "Lancaster,"  in  which 
both  bore  and  bullet  were  oval  in  shape,  and  the 
"Whitworth,"  in  which  both  were  hexagonal. 
Both  guns  were  English  inventions,  and  gave 
startling  results  in  accuracy  and  distance.  They, 
too,  like  the  Brunswick,  did  away  with  the  cutting 
of  channels  in  the  lead  while  loading,  but  the 
bullet  had  to  fit  exactly,  or  the  gas  would  leak 


THE  MUZZLE-LOADING  RIFLE          131 

around  its  sides.  This  necessity  of  close  fit 
spelled  their  doom  in  practical  use ;  for  after  the 
firing  of  a  shot  or  two  the  powder  ash  clogged 
the  barrel,  so  that  reloading  was  impossible. 


FIG.  27. — BULLET  AND  MUZZLE  OF  THE  LANCASTER  RIFLE 
The  oval  shape  of  the  barrel  progressed  spirally  from  breech  to 
muzzle  and  the  oval-shaped  projectile  in  following  this  twist- 
ing path  was  caused  to  rotate.  Fouling  of  the  barrel  quickly 
made  loading  difficult,  while  the  odd-shaped  bullet  did  not 
fly  as  accurately  as  the  true  sphere. 

Both  Lancaster  and  Whitworth  guns,  for  that 
reason,  fell  by  the  wayside. 

It  was  in  America,  about  1830,  however,  that 
the  first  fairly  successful  bullet  of  the  long  type 
appeared.  Who  discovered  its  secret  we  do  not 
know,  but  in  that  period  our  riflemen  began  com- 
monly to  use  a  new  form  of  missile  with  which 
extraordinary  shooting  was  done.  Over  ranges 
of  five  and  even  six  hundred  yards  it  carried  with, 
a  certainty  that  seemed  almost  miraculous  in  that 
day.  Indeed  its  performances  in  the  hands  of 


132  THE  GUN  BOOK 

experts  would  rank  well  alongside  the  scores  of 
our  modern  marksmen.  The  new  bullet  was  fired 
from  a  grooved  barrel,  and  was  of  the  long  type 
and  sharp  pointed.  It  was  called  the  "  sugar 
loaf,"  because  its  lines  rounded  from  base  to 
point,  like  the  peculiar  lumps  in  which  the  sugar 


FIG.  28. — BULLET  AND  MUZZLE  OF  THE  WHITWORTH  RIFLE 
Both  six-sided.  The  interior  of  the  barrel  progressed  spirally 
from  breech  to  muzzle  as  indicated  by  the  form  of  the 
projectile.  This  gun  worked  well  for  a  shot  or  two,  but 
after  becoming  slightly  corroded  with  powder  ash,  could  not 
be  loaded.  Its  rotation,  too,  was  impeded  by  the  outside 
corners. 

of  those  days  was  bought  and  sold.  As  may  be 
seen  from  the  cut,  this  shape  permitted  only  the 
extreme  base  of  the  bullet  to  come  in  contact  with 
the  barrel,  so  that  the  channels  cut  in  its  surface 
by  the  rifling  were  very  short.  Thus  the  sugar 
loaf  was  almost  as  easy  to  load  as  the  sphere. 

The  greased  patch,  however,  was  absolutely 
necessary  with  this  new  bullet,  not  only  to  make 
it  a  gas-tight  stopper  and  to  help  to  spin  it,  but 
to  support  the  cone  and  keep  its  point  centered 


THE  MUZZLE-LOADING  RIFLE          133 

in  the  barrel.  In  fact  the  gravest  fault  of  the 
sugar  loaf  was  this  very  tendency  to  tip  to  one 
side  or  the  other  in  the  barrel,  from  which  faulty 
position  good  shooting  was  out  of  the  question. 


FIG.  29. — Illustrating  the  rifling  used  in  our  Springfield  model 
1906, — four  lands  and  four  grooves.  The  grooves  are  only 
four  one-thousandths  of  an  inch  in  depth,  five  to  ten  times 
less  than  those  used  in  old-style  barrels,  intended  for  bullets 
of  pure  lead.  The  caliber  of  the  bullet  of  course  must  be 
large  enough  to  fill  the  grooves  on  each  side;  the  Springfield 
bullet  is  therefore  .308  caliber,  while  the  barrel  before  rifling 
is  .30  caliber. 

To  insure  its  being  seated  squarely  on  the  powder 
below  a  special  ramrod  was  devised  with  a  cup- 
shaped  head,  which,  fitting  over  the  point  of  the 
projectile,  forced  it' truly  into  place.  The  load- 
ing, therefore,  though  not  difficult,  was  always 
a  rather  precise  operation. 


134  THE  GUN  BOOK 

But  the  extra  care  required  in  charging  with 
the  sugar-loaf  was  well  repaid  in  the  results  it 
gave.  With  it  the  muzzle-loading  rifle  reached 
the  highest  point  of  efficiency  it  was  ever  to  at- 
tain. There  were  at  this  time  fairly  good  breech- 
loaders, but  with  them  the  escape  of  gas  at  the 
breech  made  the  use  of  full  powder  charges  in- 
advisable; so  the  American  muzzle-loader  with 


FIG.    30. — Sugar-loaf   bullet,    with    ramrod    of    special    form    to 
insure  correct  position  in  the  gun  barrel. 


the  rounded  cone  for  a  missile  remained  supreme 
until  the  metallic  shell  brought  in  the  successful 
breechloader. 

The  sphere,  however,  was  by  no  means  aban- 
doned by  the  introduction  of  the  sugar-loaf  bullet. 
For  shots  up  to  two  hundred  yards,  which  is  as 
far  as  the  hunter  usually  tries  for  game,  the  ball 
was  still  good  enough,  and  was  at  the  same  time 
less  likely  to  go  astray  when  carelessly  loaded. 
Yet  for  long,  straight  shooting  the  sharp-pointed 
projectile  had  taken  a  placfc  from  which  it  was 
never  again  to  be  overthrown.  But  so  far  as  the 
soldier  was  concerned,  especially  in  Europe,  the 


THE  MUZZLE-LOADING  RIFLE          135 

muzzle-loading  rifle  was  left  to  the  scout  and 
sharpshooter  until  1853,  when  the  British  armies 
Carried  upon  the  battle-fields  of  Crimea  rifles 
loaded  from  the  muzzle  and  which  gave  excellent 
satisfaction.  Up  to  that  time  these  soldiers  had 
clung  to  the  old  smooth-bore  " Brown  Bess"  mus- 
.ket,  improved  since  the  days  of  Wellington  only 
by  the  change  from  flint  to  percussion  ignition. 


FIG.  31.— THE  FAMOUS  "MINIE  BALL" 

The  hollow  butt  with  its  iron  wedge  in  place  is  shown  in  A. 
By  the  force  of  the  explosion  this  wedge  was  driven  deep 
into  the  hollow,  spreading  the  walls,  as  in  B,  until  they 
came  into  close  contact  with  the  barrel  and  so  were  caught 
and  spun  by  the  rifling.  The  air  acting  upon  the  hollow 
base  during  flight,  produced  the  peculiar  whistling  sound 
which  assailed  the  ears  of  our  fathers  who  fought  in  the 
battles  of  the  Civil  War. 

It  was  a  new  and  most  ingenious  bullet  invented 
in  France  that  induced  the  British  trooper  to  part 
with  his  well-beloved  old  weapon. 

This  bullet  was  the  "Minie  ball,"  named  for 
its  inventor,  and  was  afterward  to  play  an  im- 
portant part  in  the  fighting  of  our  own  Civil  War. 
Its  chief  peculiarity  was  the  cavity  at  its  base 
into  which  an  iron  plug  was  fitted.  Its  diameter 
was  small  enough  to  allow  it  to  slip  readily  into 


136  %       THE  GUN  BOOK 

the  barrel,  but  at  the  explosion  the  shock  forced 
the  plug  deeper  into  the  cavity,  thereby  spreading 
the  leaden  sides  tightly  against  the  walls  of  the 
barrel  and  into  the  grooves.  Thus  had  arrived 
at  last  a  muzzle-loading  bullet  which  entered  the 
barrel  loosely  and  came  out  tight,  forming  a  per- 
fect gas  stopper  and  giving  the  rifle  grooves  a 
firm  grip  on  the  lead.  Hence  the  long-sought 
prize  of  the  military  man  seemed  to  be  gained. 

But  the  story  of  the  improvements  of  the  gun 
is  one  of  a  single  real  success  to  ninety-nine  dis- 
appointments. The  Minie  ball,  which  at  first  gave 
promise '  of  making  the  muzzle-loading  rifle  a 
highly  satisfactory  weapon,  with  use  revealed  un- 
foreseen defects.  Though  used  by  the  soldier  for 
ten  years  after  its  introduction,  they  held  to  it 
simply  for  the  lack  of  a  better  type,  which  soon 
came.  One  trouble  was  that  in  rapid  firing  with 
a  foul  gun  the  rear  end  of  the  Minie  bullet  would 
sometimes  tear  off,  leaving  a  leaden  ring  sticking 
in  the  barrel,  a  thing  very  difficult  to  remove  in 
the  field.  Then  again,  the  iron  plug  would  not 
always  push  its  way  into  the  bullet's  cavity 
evenly,  thus  jamming  one  side  of  the  lead  more 
tightly  against  the  barrel  than  the  other,  which 
caused  wild  shooting.  The  chief  objection  to  the 
Minie  ball,  though,  was  its  large  size  in  propor- 


THE  MUZZLE-LOADING  RIFLE          137 

tion  to  its  weight,  for  its  caliber  was  very  large, 
sometimes  even  up  to  three-quarters  of  an  inch. 
We  have  seen  that  lead  was  chosen  for  bullets 
because  of  its  great  weight  and  small  bulk ;  there- 
fore when  a  cavity  is  put  into  a  projectile  the 
effect  is  the  same  as  if  another  and  lighter  ma- 
terial were  used;  that  is,  the  bulk  is  increased 
without  adding  to  the  weight.  Such  a  missile, 
then,  has  to  displace  much  air  in  going  forward 
and  has  not  the  momentum  to  carry  it.  All  hollow 
bullets  are  also  very  sensitive  to  cross-winds, 
which  sweep  them  readily  from  their  course.  This 
combination  of  shortcomings  in  the  Minie  ball 
was  too  much,  and  finally  forced  its  retirement. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  the  long,  sharp  rifle 
bullet  achieved  great  success  for  accuracy  and 
distance,  especially  in  the  sugar-loaf  form,  and 
when  of  the  Minie  type  was  an  easy  loader.  But 
no  muzzle-loading  bullet  of  long  form  was  ever 
produced  to  fulfil  both  conditions;  for  when  it 
loaded  readily  it  shot  poorly,  and  when  accurate 
in  action  was  hard  to  put  down  the  barrel.  With 
all  its  failures,  however,  the  long  bullet  had 
proven  two  things  decisively :  there  was  no  doubt 
left  that  it  was  by  far  the  most  efficient  type  of 
missile,  and  that  the  spiral  grooves  of  the  rifle 
had  the  power  to  keep  it  point  foremost  through 


138  THE  GUN  BOOK 

a  long  flight.  With  these  truths  established,  in- 
ventors were  left  with  the  single  problem  of  get- 
ting the  projectile  into  the  gun  barrel  quickly  and 
easily.  In  this  quest  they  came  gradually  to  the 
conviction  that  success  lay  not  in  further  experi- 
ments upon  the  bullet,  but  rather  in  modifications 
of  the  gun  itself.  In  these  efforts,  methods  of 
loading  at  the  breech  instead  of  the  muzzle  occu- 
pied their  attention  for  some  time,  though,  as  we 
shall  see,  only  with  fair  success. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  LONG  SEARCH  FOR  A  BREECH- 
LOADER 

THE  gun  itself  had  scarcely  been  invented  when 
men  saw  the  advantages  of  loading  it  at  the 
breech,  instead  of  at  the  muzzle.  Pushing  a 
charge  of  powder  down  a  long  cannon  tube  was 
not  an  easy  task,  and,  furthermore,  was  a  risky  one 
if  the  piece  had  been  fired  but  a  moment  before. 
There  was  always  likely  to  be  a  spark  lingering 
in  the  barrel  to  set  off  the  charge  prematurely, 
endangering  the  man  standing  in  front,  operating, 
the  ramming  stick.  This  constant  menace  gave 
rise  to  the  custom  prevalent  throughout  all  the 
days  of  muzzle-loading  cannon  of  sponging  out 
the  bore  after  each  shot,  with  a  damp  swab,  an 
operation  taking  time  and  particularly  difficult  in 
big  guns. 

Breech-loading,  therefore,  if  it  could  be  suc- 
cessfully done,  would  give  more  rapid  firing  and 
be  much  safer.  The  system  earliest  adopted  to 
accomplish  this  was  to  make  the  gun  with  a  sep- 

139 


140  THE  GUN  BOOK 

arate  breech-piece,  which  after  receiving  the 
charge,  was  wedged  in  place  at  the  rear  of  the 
main  tube.  By  using  several  of  these  breech- 
pieces,  the  loading  process  could  be  going  on  in 
the  spare  ones  while  the  gun  was  being  fired. 
The  plan  seemed  to  work  fairly  well,  for  there 
still  remain  enough  of  these  relics  to  show  that 
they  were  tolerably  plentiful  through  the  fif- 
teenth, and  even  in  the  fourteenth  century. 

But  besides  these  cannon  with  removable  end 
sections,  there  were  also  guns  made  in  early  times 
which  had  breech  plugs  merely  to  close  the  bore 
at  the  rear  after  the  charge  had  been  inserted. 
Some  of  these  attachments  were  kept  in  place 
by  wedges,  some  with  pins,  while  still  others  were 
screwed  in  and  out  like  bolts. 

In  hand  guns  the  same  methods  were  fol- 
lowed in  producing  breechloaders.  The  remova- 
ble chamber  was  common  and  breech  plugs  of 
various  forms  were  tried.  The  hinged  barrel 
which  drops  down,  as  is  now  common  in  our  shot- 
guns, is  one  of  the  earliest  of  breech-loading  ideas. 
With  the  hand  gun  breech-loading  was  even  more 
important  a  problem  than  with  the  cannon.  It 
was  almost  impossible  for  the  cavalryman  to 
charge  his  muzzle-loading  gun  while  in  action,  and 
he  was  therefore  robbed  of  part  of  the  benefit  of 


SEARCH  FOR  A  BREECH-LOADER 

firearms.  Nor  could  the  infantryman  well  reload 
his  piece  while  lying  down;  and  having  to  stand 
up  while  loading  made  him  much  more  vulnerable 
than  he  would  have  been  had  he  been  able  occa-, 
sionally  to  take  the  prone  position  during  a  fight. 
But  in  spite  of  the  advantages  of  breech-loading 
over  charging  from  the  muzzle,  the  search  for  a 


FIG.  32. — Breechloader  of  date  about  1700,  handed  down  as  a 
relic  of  Philip  V,  King  of  Spain.  The  iron  cartridge  it  used 
is  shown;  a  hole  in  its  wall  near  the  base  admitted  the 
igniting  fire  from  the  snaphance  igniter. 

successful  solution  of  the  problem  was  to  be  car- 
ried on  through  five  hundred  years  of  practical 
failure.  Though  the  quest  began  shortly  after 
the  Battle  of  Crecy  in  1346,  it  was  not  brought 
to  triumph  until  about  the  year  1850. 

The  baffling  problem  was  to  find  some  closing 
device  that  would  work  simply  and  quickly,  but 
which  would  at  the  same  time  keep  the  rear  of 
the  gun  tube  tight.  The  tremendous  pressure 
created  at  the  explosion  made  confining  of  the 


THE  GUN  BOOK 

gases  most  difficult.  Leakage  not  only  diminished 
the  power  behind  the  bullet,  but  scorched  the 
hands  and  face  of  the  firer,  and  carried  powder 
ash  into  the  working  parts,  soon  clogging  them  to 
uselessness.  Again,  if  the  opening  and  closing 
parts  were  complicated  and  worked  slowly  they 
gave  no  great  advantage  over  the  muzzle-loader; 
while  if  one  part  expanded  from  the  heat  of  firing, 
so  that  it  would  not  engage  with  its  neighbor, 
the  gun  became  a  club  and  nothing  more.  It  was 
a  task  inviting  to  any  inventor,  and  during  the 
long  period  of  experiment  many  men  of  high 
ability  tried  and  failed  in  the  undertaking. 

It  was  the  rifle,  however,  in  later  times  which 
called  most  persistently  for  means  of  loading  at 
the  breech.  After  the  American  had  demon- 
strated its  possibilities,  even  with  the  slow  muzzle- 
loading  process,  and  had  adopted  it  as  his  fa- 
vorite weapon,  every  one  knew  that  the  smooth- 
bore would  have  to  step  down  and  out  for  all 
purposes  when  a  satisfactory  method  of  loading 
came  in.  With  the  one  exception,  its  leaky 
breech,  the  merits  of  the  gun  loaded  from  the 
rear  of  its  barrel  were  clearly  paramount. 

During  the  Revolutionary  War  a  promising 
type  of  breech-loading  rifle  appeared  in  America, 
but  in  the  hands  of  British  soldiers.  It  was  the 


SEARCH  FOR  A  BREECH-LOADER      143 

invention  of  Major  Patrick  Ferguson  of  a  High- 
land regiment,  who  produced  it  to  help  his  men 
contend  more  successfully  against  American 
sharpshooters.  It  was  a  flint-lock,  of  course,  and 


FIG.  33. — FERGUSON  BREECH-LOADING  RIFLE 

The  first  notable  braechloader  to  appear  on  the  American  con- 
tinent. It  was  used  by  the  British  in  the  Battle  of  Brandy- 
wine,  but  disappeared  upon  the  death  of  its  inventor  at 
King's  Mountain. 

opened  and  closed  by  means  of  a  screw  bolt  that 
worked  up  and  down  at  the  breech.  The  trigger 
guard  served  as  a  lever,  which,  by  swinging 
around  to  the  right  under  the  gun,  turned  the 
bolt  and  caused  it  to  lower,  thus  exposing  the 
breech.  After  the  bullet  and  powder  charge  were 
inserted  the  bolt  was  returned  to  position  by 
swinging  the  lever  back  in  place.  Only  a  single 
turn  of  the  lever  was  necessary  to  complete  the 
operation.  A  hundred  or  more  of  these  guns 


THE  GUN  BOOK 

were  turned  out,  and  with  them  a  company  of 
sharpshooters  was  equipped  and  sent  south  under 
command  of  the  inventor  himself,  to  combat  the 
patriots  fighting  there.  At  the  Battle  of  King's 
Mountain  this  command  was  wiped  out  and  their 
commander  killed.  With  him  his  ingenious  rifle 
passed  from  view  and  was  never  again  revived. 

Though  we  do  not  know  just  how  great  was 
the  efficiency  of  the  Ferguson  gun,  it  is  entirely 
probable  that  leakage  and  unequal  expansion  of 
the  parts  gave  serious  trouble.  Its  prompt  dis- 
appearance after  the  death  of  its  enthusiastic  in- 
ventor would  suggest  that  the  operation  of  the 
new  device  was  far  from  satisfactory. 

The  first  breech-loading  rifle  to  be  given  more 
than  local  attention  was  that  invented  by  John  H. 
Hall,  an  American,  in  1810.  Many  of  these  were 
manufactured  by  the  United  States  Government 
and  issued  to  the  troops  who  took  part  in  the 
Seminole  and  Blackhawk  Indian  wars.  Some -of 
these  guns  even  survived  to  be  used  in  the  war 
with  Mexico.  The  Hall  rifle  was  not  new  in  prin- 
ciple, for  it  was  of  the  very  old  type  in  which  the 
charge  was  put  into  a  separate  chamber  worked 
up  and  down  on  a  hinge  at  its  rear  end.  By 
tilting  the  breech  tube  upward  the  powder  and 
ball  could  be  put  into  it,  and  when  depressed  the 


SEARCH  FOR  A  BREECH-LOADER      145 

gun  was  in  position  for  firing.  It  was  also  a 
flint-lock,  but  peculiar  in  that  the  ignition  device 
was  not  attached  to  the  barrel  but  to  the  oscillat- 
ing powder  chamber  and  worked  up  and  down 


FIG.  34. — HALL'S  AMERICAN  BREECH-LOADING  RIFLE 
This  was  the  first  successful  breechloader,  a  remarkable  gun  in 
its  time.  The  combustion  chamber  was  a  movable  part 
which  tilted  upward  for  loading  and  was  then  depressed  for 
firing.  The  flint-lock  igniter  was  affixed  to  the  tilting 
chamber. 


with  it.  While  gas  leakage  must  have  been  con- 
siderable in  this  arm,  yet  it  gave  great  satisfac- 
tion to  those  who  used  and  wrote  of  it.  No  breech- 
loader of  that  time  could  shoot  the  heavy  charges 
which  the  solid-ended,  muzzle-loading  barrel 
would  withstand,  so  that  the  latter  still  stood 
alone  when  it  came  to  straight  long  shots.  But 
where  shorter  range  would  answer  and  quick  fir- 
ing was  desired,  the  Hall  rifle  was  the  favorite 


146  THE  GUN  BOOK 

in  America,  down  to  the  time  of  the  Sharp's  Old 
Reliable,  which  came  into  popularity  about  1850. 

Hall,  the  patentee  of  this  rifle,  gave  voice  to  an  idea 
which  has  had  a  more  important  effect  upon  firearms 
than  had  even  the  production  of  his  excellent  gun. 
This  was  the  plan  of  having  military  weapons  made 
with  parts  so  uniform  that  they  would  be  interchange- 
able. Always  previous  to  that  time  parts  of  guns  of 
even  the  same  make  and  type  were  manufactured  by 
hand,  each  piece  for  its  own  weapon,  and  not  likely  to 
fit  into  any  other.  The  United  States  adopted  Hall's 
suggestion,  thus  making  a  new  departure  in  gun  manu- 
facture. The  letter  written  by  Hall  in  1827  to  the  War 
Department  setting  forth  his  views  on  this,  as  well  as 
his  conviction  that  the  rifle  was  then  a  perfect  weapon, 
follows : 

"  Only  one  point  now  remains  to  bring  the  rifles  to 
the  utmost  perfection,  which  I  shall  attempt,  if  the 
Government  contracts  with  me  to  any  considerable 
amount,  viz. :  to  make  every  similar  part  of  every  gun 
so  much  alike  that  it  will  suit  every  gun;  so  that  if 
a  thousand  guns  were  taken  apart  and  the  limbs  thrown 
promiscuously  together  in  one  heap,  they  may  be  taken 
promiscuously  from  the  heap  and  all  come  right.  .  .  . 
A  favorite  and  important  part  of  the  American  small 
arms  would  then  be  at  the  height  of  perfection,  and 
would  vastly  excel  those  of  any  other  nation.  They 
would  be  strong,  durable,  and  simple,  easily  kept  in 
order,  easily  repaired  when  out  of  order,  perfectly  ac- 
curate, and  capable  of  being  fired  with  the  greatest 
quickness  which  a  gun  can  admit  of,  and  we  have  more 
marksmen  than  can  be  found  in  the  army  of  any  other 
nation." 


SEARCH  FOR  A  BREECH-LOADER      147 

In  1836  Samuel  Colt,  a  New  Englander,  in- 
vented his  famous  revolving  breechloader.  This 
system  we  now  see  in  use  today  in  revolvers,  but 
it  was  at  first  applied  to  the  larger  type  of  hand 
gun  as  well.  The  Colt  method  is  so  familiar  to 
us  all  that  description  is  not  necessary.  It  must 
be  recalled,  however,  that  though  the  idea  of  a 
revolving  cylinder  of  many  barrels  and  cylinders 
containing  a  number  of  chambers  firing  through 
a  single  barrel,  were  tried,  and  even  used  to  some 
extent,  centuries  before  Colt  was  born;  but  he 
was  the  man  who  at  last  made  the  plan  work- 
able. The  arm  attached  to  the  trigger,  which 
causes  the  cylinder  to  rotate  to  its  proper  posi- 
tion, and  the  device  under  the  cylinder  that  locks 
it  in  place  while  being  fired,  were  the  principal 
means  of  giving  a  new  and  useful  arm  to  the 
world.  While  the  Colt  method  did  not  live  long 
in  rifles,  it  was  to  have  a  long  and  honorable 
career  in  the  smaller  weapon  fired  from  one 
hand. 

Turning  now  to  Europe  to  see  what  was  going 
on  there  in  breechloaders,  our  attention  is  imme- 
diately arrested  by  the  needle  gun  with  which 
the  Prussian  armies  overwhelmed  Austria  in 
1866,  and  which  they  used  against  France  with 
great  effect  four  years  later.  It  was  patented  in 


148  THE  GUN  BOOK 

Prussia  in  1836  by  a  German  gunsmith,  Johann 
Nicholas  von  Dreyse,  who  had  spent  many  years 
in  the  gun  shop  of  M.  Pauli,  a  Swiss,  in  Paris, 
learning  his  trade  and  helping  to  make  arms  for 
the  great  Napoleon.  In  1827  he  went  back  to 


Courtesy  of  the  Century  Company. 

FIG.  35. — NEEDLE  GUN 

o,  Cartridge;  &,  bullet;  c,  paper  wad  carrying  detonating  com- 
pound in  recess;  d,  charge  of  powder;  n,  needle  passing 
through  and  sliding  in  the  breech-piece,  and  striking  on  the 
detonating  compound;  /,  breech-piece;  g,  sliding  spring-bolt 
which  carries  and  operates  the  needle;  h,  a  collar  on  the 
bolt,  g,  which  engages  the  sear  when  g  is  drawn  back;  t, 
the  sear;  fc,  spring  on  which  the  sear,  i,  is  formed,  and  which 
is  pressed  downward  by  the  trigger  to  release  the  bolt,  g, 
when  the  gun  is  fired;  I,  the  trigger,  which  engages  the 
spring,  k,  by  a  forwardly  projecting  lip;  m,  thumb-piece  of 
spring-catch,  which  latter  holds  the  breech-piece  in  place 
during  the  firing  and  which,  pressed  downward,  releases 
the  breech-piece;  o,  thumb-piece  of  lock-tube;  r,  handle  of 
the  breech-piece. 

Germany  and  took  out  a  patent  on  a  new  method 
for  percussion  ignition,  which  invention  M.  Pauli 
afterward  pretty  clearly  proved  was  his  own  and 
had  been  purloined  by  von  Dreyse.  The  main 
idea  involved  in  the  needle  gun  was  the  placing 
at  the  butt  end  of  the  bullet  a  well-known  chemical 


SEARCH  FOR  A  BREECH-LOADER      149 

mixture  that  would  explode  upon  being  struck, 
thus  firing  the  powder  charge.  A  long  needle 
extended  through  the  breech  of  the  gun  and 
through  the  powder  charge,  parallel  with  the 
barrel,  so  that  when  the  hammer  of  the  gun  struck 
the  needle  it  would  be  driven  against  the  base  of 
the  bullet,  setting  off  the  ignition  mixture.  The 
first  gun  which  von  Dreyse  made  using  this  idea 
was  a  muzzle-loader,  but  he  later  adapted  the 
principle  to  the  breechloader,  for  which  his  patent 
in  1836  was  granted  and  which  the  German 
armies  adopted  slowly  during  the  next  twenty-five 
years. 

The  breech  of  the  needle  gun  opened  and  closed 
by  means  of  an  iron  rod,  which  slid  straight  back 
from  the  opening  of  the  barrel,  thus  making  it 
one  of  the  true  "bolt  type"  of  rifles.  It  was  one 
of  the  first  breechloaders  to  use  the  percussion 
method  of  firing  and  used  the  pointed  bullet,  the 
ammunition  being  made  up  in  the  form  of  a  paper 
cartridge,  thus  permitting  the  needle  to  pass 
freely  through  the  powder  charge  to  the  primer 
at  the  base  of  the  bullet.  This  ignition  method 
will  be  mentioned  again,  the  important  point  for 
us  to  notice  here  being  the  efficacy  of  «the  von 
Dreyse  gun  in  preventing  escape  of  powder  gas 
from  the  rear.  The  fact  is  that  it  was  no  better 


150  THE  GUN  BOOK 

in  this  respect  than  its  predecessors.  In  1855 
the  Prussian  armies  adopted  it  exclusively,  but 
largely  on  account  of  its  merit  in  firing  rapidly. 
Only  small  charges  were  permissible  in  it,  so  that 
its  range  was  less  than  that  of  the  muzzle-loading 
rifle.  The  needle  gun  proved  to  be  so  rapid  in 
action  that  it  greatly  assisted  the  Germans  to 
overwhelm  the  Austrians  in  the  war  of  1866,  the 
vanquished  armies  being  equipped  only  with  old- 
fashioned  muzzle-loaders.  Against  such  weapons 
the  von  Dreyse  gun  proved  greatly  superior. 

In  the  meantime  the  French  had  taken  up  the 
needle  gun,  greatly  improved  it,  and  made  it  their 
official  military  rifle  in  1866.  In  the  war  with  the 
Germans  in  1870  the  French  type  outstripped  the 
von  Dreyse  gun  in  every  way.  It  could  not  only 
be  fired  with  equal  rapidity  but  had  greater  range 
and  accuracy.  Besides  putting  the  percussion 
cap  at  the  extreme  base  of  the  cartridge,  instead 
of  upon  the  wad  between  powder  and  bullet,  the 
French  reduced  the  caliber  from  .66,  as  in  the 
Prussian  gun,  to  .43  caliber,  and  added  to  it  a 
breech  stopper  like  the  de  Bange  apparatus,  then 
and  even  now  used  in  artillery  to  prevent  leakage 
of  gas.  •  When  in  good  condition,  this  device  re- 
duced the  amount  of  leakage  considerably,  and 
so  permitted  the  use  of  heavier  powder  charges, 


SEARCH  FOR  A  BREACH-LOADER     151 

but  was  never  an  entire  success  in  the  hand  gun. 
Some  gas  would  still  get  past,  especially  after 
the  rubber  ring  used  in  the  stopper  became  hard- 
ened by  the  heat  of  long-continued  firing.  The 


FIG.  36. — THE  DE  RANGE  GAS  STOPPER 

The  de  Bange  gas  stopper  is  used  in  artillery.  A  form  of  this 
device  gave  to  the  French  chassepot  its  mild  back-flash. 
A,  A,  a  ring  of  elastic  material;  Bt  breech  bolt  of  gun;  C, 
cap,  which  at  the  discharge  moves  backward,  compressing 
and  expanding  A,  A. 

needle  gun  as  thus  improved  by  the  French  was 
called  the  chassepot. 

The  de  Bange  gas  stopper  is  simple,  though 
quite  interesting.  By  it  an  elastic  ring,  usually 
of  rubber  in  the  smaller  weapons,  but  of  more 
resistant  composition  for  cannon,  is  made  to  ex- 
pand inside  the  breech  of  the  barrel,  shutting  off 
more  or  less  escape  of  gas  rearward.  By  refer- 


152  THE  GUN  BOOK 

ence  to  the  accompanying  picture  its  operation 
will  be  seen  at  a  glance. 

It  was  claimed  as  one  of  the  great  merits  of 
the  German  needle-gun  cartridge  that  its  ignition, 
commencing  as  it  did  at  the  front  end  of  the 
charge,  tgave  more  complete  combustion  to  the 
powder  because  the  grains  were  less  likely  to  be 
blown  out  of  the  barrel  unburned.  The  French, 
however,  disproved  this  theory  by  continuing  to 
get  excellent  results  with  the  primer  at  the  rear 
of  the  charge  instead  of  its  front.  The  needle 
gun  and  the  chassepot  were,  up  to  that  time, 
Europe's  most  important  breechloaders. 

One  early  breechloader,  the  general  adoption 
of  which  preceded  that  of  the  needle  gun  and 
chassepot  by  several  years,  and  which  cannot  be 
omitted  from  special  mention  here  is  the  Ameri- 
can Sharp's  rifle  of  .52  caliber,  weighing  sixteen 
pounds,  invented  by  Christian  Sharp  in  1848.  To 
our  pioneers  of  the  last  generation  its  name  was 
a  household  word,  for  this  weapon  was  to  many 
of  them  a  faithful  companion  in  their  journeys 
and  dangers.  Before  the  Civil  War  Sharp's 
rifles,  in  the  hands  of  the  men  of  John  Brown  of 
Ossawatomie,  helped  to  make  history  in  the 
border  trouble  stirred  up  by  slavery;  and  during 
the  war  itself  were  issued  to  Northern  soldiers, 


SEARCH  FOR  A  BREECH-LOADER      153 

principally  to  cavalry,  who  found  in  it  a  weapon 
admirably  fitted  to  the  needs  of  the  fighting 
horseman.  In  the  Indian  wars  which  followed 
in  the  seventies  the  Sharp's,  then  changed  to  use 
metallic  cartridges,  was  largely  used  and  gave  an 


FIG.  37. — SHARP'S  BREECH-LOADING  CARBINE 

One  of  the  world's  most  famous  guns.     Its  virtues  are  recited 
in  the  text. 

excellent  account  of  itself.  The  buffalo  hunter 
of  those  days  also  found  it  the  best  of  all  weapons 
for  his  purpose;  in  range,  accuracy,  and  hard- 
hitting qualities  its  like  had  never  been  seen  in 
breechloaders.  The  Sharp's  Old  Reliable  it  was 
nicknamed,  and  well  deserved  the  title. 

The  Sharp's  in  its  first  form  used  cartridges 
of  paper  or  linen,  which  were  inserted  directly 
into  the  breech  of  the  barrel,  the  envelope  being 
consumed  with  the  powder,  and  ignited  by  a  per- 
cussion cap.  The  closing  device  was  a  block 
worked  by  a  lever  below,  sliding  straight  down  to 
expose  the  breech  for  loading,  and  rising  again 
into  position  to  close  the  gun  for  discharge.  By 


154  THE  GUN  BOOK 

a  clever  device  •  attached  to  some  of  the  models 
a  fresh  cap  was  placed  upon  the  nipple  when  the 
lever  was  operated,  allowing  ten  aimed  shots  per 
minute  to  be  fired,  which  was  a  remarkable  feat 
in  those  days. 

The  early  Sharp's,  however,  was  famous  more 
for  its  rapidity  and  power  than  for  its  ability  to 
prevent  leakage  of  gas  at  the  breech.  In  this 
respect  it  was  not  much  better  than  its  con- 
temporaries, for  the  back-flash  at  each  shot  was 
great  enough  to  burn  a  hole  in  a  handkerchief 
placed  over  the  lock  in  firing.  Upon  the  intro- 
duction of  the  metallic  center-fire  cartridge  shell, 
about  1870,  the  gun  was  altered  to  use  that  kind 
of  ammunition;  and  thus  passed  the  last  of  the 
old  American  breechloaders  that  used  a  mere  iron 
stopper  to  confine  the  gases  at  the  breech. 


CHAPTER  XI 

ARRIVAL  OF  THE  PERFECT  BREECH- 
LOADER 

IN  a  previous  chapter  we  traced  the  important 
steps  in  the  progress  of  ignition  down  to  the  flint- 
lock, where,  for  the  time  being,  we  rested  the  sub- 
ject. We  are  now  to  take  it  up  again  and  learn 
how  the  new  method  of  igniting  the  powder 
charge  already  touched  upon  in  describing  breech- 
loaders in  the  preceding  chapter,  together  with 
the  invention  of  the  brass  cartridge  shell,  was  to 
give  us  at  last  the  faultless  gas  stopper  for  breech- 
loaders. 

Discovery  of  the  new  igniter  came  about,  as  so 
many  other  great  inventions  have  occurred,  while 
men  were  searching  for  something  else.  During 
the  years  near  1800  Napoleon,  in  carrying  on  his 
wars,  being  most  of  the  time  shut  off  from  sea 
traffic  by  British  fleets,  found  it  hard  to  get 
enough  saltpeter  to  make  powder  for  his  armies. 
As  he  always  used  many  cannon  in  his  battles, 
large  quantities  of  explosives  were  necessary  for 

155 


156  THE  GUN  BOOK 

his  purposes.  To  the  French  chemists  of  his  time, 
who  were  very  able  men,  Napoleon  appealed  for 
a  substitute  for  saltpeter  which  would  permit  the 
making  of  powder  from  ingredients  which  might 
be  found  more  plentifully  and  near  at  hand,  thus 
avoiding  resort  to  foreign  sources. 

At  this  task  the  distinguished  chemist  Ber- 
thollet,  in  particular,  labored  long,  but  in  vain. 
The  compounds  he  experimented  with  were  chiefly 
chlorate  of  potash  (KC103)  and  the  fulminates 
of  mercury  and  silver  (CNOHg  and  CNOAg). 
Of  the  latter  he  himself  was  the  discoverer,  while 
the  former  had  been  originated  by  the  English 
chemist,  Howard,  in  1799.  All  these  were  highly 
explosive  substances,  the  very  violence  of  which 
defeated  the  chemist's  purposes.  No  gun  barrel 
could  withstand  their  shock;  while  they  were  so 
sensitive  that  the  handling  of  them  was  dangerous 
in  the  extreme.  The  mercury  compound  proved 
to  be  most  stable  of  the  three,  but  even  this  was 
too  sudden  in  its  operation  to  serve  as  a  pro- 
pellant.  After  several  years  of  hazardous  ex- 
perimenting, in  which  he  several  times  barely 
escaped  with  his  life,  Berthollet  gave  up  the  prob- 
lem as  impossible. 

In  Scotland  about  the  same  time  there  was  a 
clergyman,  Alexander  Forsyth,  who  liked  to  hunt, 


ARRIVAL  OF  THE  BREECHLOADER    157 

and  who  also  in  spare  moments  dabbled  a  little 
in  chemistry.  He,  too,  in  a  small  way,  joined  in 
the  search  for  a  new  powder,  using  also  the  same 
compounds  the  Frenchmen  were  working  with. 
While  he  succeeded  no  better  than  they  in  finding 
a  satisfactory  substitute  for  saltpeter,  his  experi- 
ments in  this  field  gave  rise  in  his  mind  to  a  new, 
and  perhaps  even  more  valuable  idea.  Though 
the  strange  explosives  proved  too  ungovernable 
for  use  as  propellants,  he  saw  in  them  possibili- 
ties of  a  revolutionary  method  of  ignition,  which 
would  do  away  with  flint  and  steel  and  all  the 
evils  connected  with  them. 

Both  of  the  fulminates  and  the  chlorate  had 
in  common  one  peculiar  trait — they  would  explode 
at  a  slight  blow  of  a  hammer.  Forsyth's  plan 
was  to  utilize  this  feature  by  putting  a  small  por- 
tion of  the  mercury  compound  in  the  pan  of  his 
gun  with  the  priming  powder  and  causing  it  to 
be  struck  by  a  snapper  or  hammer  affixed  to  the 
weapon  and  operated  by  a  spring.  Thereupon  he 
removed  flint  and  steel  from  his  shotgun  and  sub- 
stituted for  them  the  new  device.  To  his  dismay, 
however,  when  the  hammer  was  snapped,  the 
fulminate  exploded  so  suddenly  and  violently  that 
the  priming  powder  was  thrown  out  of  the  pan 
without  igniting.  But  he  persisted,  trying  vari- 


158  THE  GUN  BOOK 

ous  methods  for  the  accomplishment  of  his  pur- 
pose, until  at  last  he  succeeded. 

In  1805  Forsyth  hunted  with  the  first  gun  that 
fired  without  actual  application  of  fire  at  its  vent. 
He  had  removed  the  priming  pan  entirely,  using 
in  its  stead  a  tube  screwed  into  the  breech  of 
the  barrel.  Priming  powder  put  into  this  tube 
was  ignited  by  fulminate  placed  beside  it  and 
struck  by  a  plunger  pin — which,  in  its  turn,  was 
tapped  by  a  spring  hammer  on  the  outside.  By 
this  means  the  priming  was  held  fast  in  the  tube, 
and  thus  confined,  caught  fire  and  discharged  the 
gun.  In  1807  a  patent  was  granted  Forsyth,  not 
only  for  his  device,  but  for  the  idea  behind  it — 
ignition  by  percussion. 

The  invention  was  crude,  slow  in  operation,  and 
not  of  much  practical  use  as  Forsyth  left  it;  but 
willing  hands  and  fertile  brains  were  not  lacking 
to  help  bring  the  invention  into  real  service.  It 
was  admitted  by  all  that  great  things  were  in 
store  for  the  gun  when  percussion  ignition  would 
become  perfected,  which  indeed  was  the  truth,  as 
we  shall  see. 

It  was  quickly  perceived  by  other  inventors 
that  Forsyth's  apparatus  with  priming-  tube  and 
plunger  pin  was  too  complicated  ever  to  give  good 
results.  After  many  attempts  to  simplify  it  the 


ARRIVAL  OF  THE  BREECHLOADER    159 

whole  contraption  was  abandoned.  An  interest- 
ing development  then  occurred.  The  vent-hole 
was  shifted  from  the  side  of  the  barrel  to  its  top, 
from  which  it  had  been  taken  centuries  before; 
and  even  the  old  bowl-like  depression  around  it 
restored.  In  this  was  placed  fulminate,  which, 
on  being  struck  by  a  spring  hammer,  exploded, 
firing  the  fine  priming  powder  in  the  vent-hole; 
thus  setting  off  the  main  charge  in  the  barrel. 
Admirably  simple  as  this  plan  seems,  it  had  an 
equally  simple  but  almost  fatal  defect.  The 
•sticky  ash  of  the  fulminate  clogged  the  vent  so 
quickly  and  was  so  hard  to  dislodge  that,  though 
many  guns  so  equipped  were  made  and  used,  they 
never  lived  up  to  the  promises  at  first  made  for 
them. 

Other  and  less  hopeful  schemes  were  tried  from 
time  to  time,  only  to  fail,  until  1816,  when  Shaw, 
a  Philadelphian,  conquered  the  stubborn  prob- 
lem.* He  devised  a  hollow  nipple,  screwed  into 
the  top  of  the  gun  barrel,  its  cavity  leading  down 
into  the  powder  chamber.  Over  the  top  of  this 
tube  he  placed  a  copper  cap,  containing  some 
fulminate  of  mercury.  When  the  hammer  came 
down  upon  the  cap,  the  percussion  compound  was 
exploded,  shooting  a  stream  of  flame  directly  into 

*  See  Fig.  9  for  illustration  and  description  of  Shaw's  invention. 


160  THE  GUN  BOOK 

the  barrel.  Thus  for  the  first  time  since  the  days 
of  the  hot  wire,  igniting  heat  was  sent  into  the 
charge  without  priming  the  gun,  for  the  powder 
of  the  main  charge  could  be  rammed  hard  enough 
from  the  muzzle  to  force  some  of  it  up  into  the 
nipple.  The  author  recalls  though  that,  when  a 
sure  shot  was  wanted  and  time  permitted,  it  was 
customary  to  put  a  little  powder  into  the  nipple 
from  the  outside.  As  the  quantity  of  fulminate 
thus  necessary  was  very  small,  clogging  of  the 
vent  was  practically  avoided;  while  elimination 
of  the  .priming  operation  saved  time  in  loading- 
and  made  misfires  more  rare.  Not  the  least, 
either,  of  the  benefits  derived  from  the  use  of 
Shaw's  cap  was  the  relief  from  bad  effects  of 
wind  and  rain,  which  had  long  vexed  the  gunner. 
The  cap  was  almost  waterproof  and  the  wind 
could  no  longer  play  its  usual  pranks  with  prim- 
ing powder,  which  results  alone  were  sufficient  to 
assure  the  gun  a  new  era  in  its  career.  In  justice 
to  others  it  must  be  said  that  Shaw  was  not  the 
first  maker  of  percussion  caps,  but  he  first  suc- 
ceeded in  making  them  workable  and  was  granted 
patents  for  his  devices. 

The  days  of  the  flint-lock  were  now  numbered, 
but  it  disappeared  only  very  slowly.  Men  have 
always  been  loath  to  throw  away  their  old  and 


ARRIVAL  OF  THE  BREECHLOADER     161 

well-tried  guns  for  new  and  even  better  ones. 
For  this  reason  the  new  system  of  firing,  which 
required  either  new  guns  or  radical  changes  in 
the  old  ones,  was  only  gradually  adopted  in  spite 
of  its  great  merits,  though  it  came  faster  in  the 
United  States  than  in  Europe.  Here  almost  every 
man  is  an  inventor  of  some  sort ;  and  in  the  early 
part  of  the  nineteenth  century  Americans  were 
accustomed  to  make  their  own  guns,  or  have  them 
made  under  their  own  supervision.  Consequently 
new  ideas  were  readily  taken  up.  Then  again,  in 
Europe  the  gun  has  been  chiefly  used  as  an  arm 
for  the  soldier,  or  as  a  hunting  weapon  by  a  few 
men  of  leisure;  while  in  our  country,  with  its 
wilderness  and  broad  plains,  the  gun  has  from 
the  beginning  been  the  familiar  companion  of  the 
common  man.  It  is  perhaps  for  these  reasons 
that  such  new  things  as  percussion  ignition,  the 
rifled  gun  barrel,  and  the  pointed  bullet  were 
tried  out  and  adopted  among  us  long  before 
other  nations  took  them  up. 

While  percussion  caps  were  commonly  used  in 
America  from  1816  on,  and  in  a  few  years  had 
practically  driven  out  the  flint  and  steel  as  an 
igniter,  it  was  not  until  1834  that  Europeans 
awoke  to  the  fact  that  they  were  behind  the  times 
in  this  respect.  In  that  year  the  British  Govern- 


162  THE  GUN  BOOK 

ment,  in  long  tests,  found  that  the  best  flint-lock 
missed  fire  twenty-three  times  for  each  miss  by 
the  American  copper  cap  and  nipple.  Shortly 
after  this  the  new  plan  received  the  seal  of  Eu- 
ropean approval  by  being  adopted  as  the  official 
system  for  the  British  army.  At  the  period  about 
1840  muzzle-loading  was  still  the  standard  method 
both  for  smooth-bore  and  rifle;  but  breech-load- 
ing rifles  were  then,  as  we  have  seen,  knocking 
persistently  for  admission.  The  Hall  gun  ex- 
changed its  flint  and  steel  igniter  for  nipple  and 
cap,  but  the  great  drawback  of  leakage  at  the 
breech  still  remained.  When  the  Sharp's  rifle 
came  in  1850  the  same  defect  hampered  its  bids 
for  popularity.  The  von  Dreyse  needle  gun,  pro- 
duced in  1836,  was  no  improvement  in  this  im- 
portant respect.  All  leaked,  and  leaked  badly. 

But  there  was  one  development  that  began 
about  this  time  which  led  in  the  end  to  results  of 
first  magnitude  in  solving  the  problem  of  suc- 
cessful breech-loading.  This  was  the  production 
of  the  new  metallic  cartridge. 

From  time  immemorial  soldiers  and  hunters 
had  tied  ball  and  powder  together,  so  that  in 
loading  the  piece  in  the  field  the  proper  charge 
would  be  ready  without  measurement,  thus  saving 
time.  The  paper  was  torn,  the  powder  poured 


ARRIVAL  OF  THE  BREECHLOADER     163 

into  the  barrel,  and  the  bullet,  still  wrapped  in 
the  paper  envelope,  pushed  after  it.  The  fit  was 
then  snug  enough  to  prevent  the  ball  from  rolling 
out  of  the  smooth-bore  tube.  The  ancient  hand 
gunner  wore  a  shoulder  strap,  or  "bandolier,"  to 
which  such  prepared  charges  were  attached,  to 
be  carried.  Sometimes,  as  with  the  French,  a 
pouch  was  used  for  the  same  purpose,  called  a 
cartouche,  from  which  the  very  word  cartridge 
is  derived. 

With  the  advent  of  the  breechloader  the  car- 
tridge took  on  added  importance.  The  rapid 
firing  which  the  new  arm  permitted  required  the 
gunner  to  have  his  ammunition  carefully  pre- 
pared for  quick  insertion  into  his  weapon.  The 
powder  charge  was  rolled  in  a  paper  capsule,  with 
the  bullet  pasted  into  its  open  end;  the  rear  of 
it  to  be  torn  or  pierced  for  ignition  only  after 
being  actually  in  place  in  the  gun  chamber.  In 
the  Sharp's  even  this  puncturing  operation  was 
avoided  by  making  the  butt  end  of  the  cartridge 
of  thin  paper,  which  offered  no  obstacle  to  the 
igniting  fire.  Thus  the  paper  cartridge  became 
an  instrument  of  great  exactness. 

In  1827  the  Swiss  inventor,  Pauli,  if  we  believe 
him  in  his  dispute  with  von  Dreyse,  produced  the 
paper  percussion  cap  much  like  those  now  used 


164 


THE  GUN  BOOK 


in  toy  pistols,  to  be  placed  in  a  prepared  cartridge 
and  exploded  by  an  intruded  rod  or  needle  driven 
against  it.  This  cartridge  proved  very  success- 
ful through  fifty  years  of  use ;  though  the  needle, 


FIG.  38. — A  and  B  are  the  cartridges  used,  respectively,  in  the 
needle  gun  and  chassepot.  The  outside  wrappings  are  of 
paper,  the  first  having  its  primer  at  the  base  of  the  bullet, 
the  other  at  the  rear  of  the  cartridge.  A  great  fault  with 
these  cartridges  was  that  the  needle  which  exploded  them 
quickly  became  corroded  from  contact  with  the  burning 
powder,  thereby  often  failing  in  operation. 

remaining  in  the  powder  charge  during  the  ex- 
plosion, corroded  and  gave  much  trouble  by  stick- 
ing and  breaking.  This  was  one  of  the  reasons 
why  the  German  needle  gun  and  the  French 
chassepot,  which  used  this  system  of  ignition, 
were  abandoned  even  while  they  remained,  other- 
wise, very  good  weapons.  As  a  cartridge,  how- 
ever, the  advance  thus  made  was  quite  important. 
In  1847  the  final  step  was  taken  in  uniting  per- 
cussion ignition  with  the  metal  shell,  from  which 
successful  breech-loading  was  to  spring.  In  that 
year  Houiller,  a  Paris  gun  maker,  produced  the 


ARRIVAL  OF  THE  BREECHLOADER    165 

new  device,  probably  the  greatest  single  stroke 
ever  made  in  the  advancement  of  the  gun.  He 
used  for  his  cartridge,  instead  of  paper,  a  thin 
copper  tube  closed  at  the  rear,  containing  the 
powder  charge,  with  the  bullet  protruding  from 
its  mouth.  The  virtue  of  this  arrangement  was 
that  the  metal  envelope  under  the  strain  of  the 
explosion  stretched  until  it  pressed  so  tightly 
against  the  walls  of  the  gun  barrel  that  egress  of 
gas  backward  past  its  sides  was  entirely  pre- 
vented. After  accomplishing  this  the  copper  con- 
tracted enough  to  permit  the  shell  to  be  easily 
withdrawn  for  the  insertion  of  a  new  one.  Thus 
the  problem  of  centuries  was  solved,  and  so  sim- 
ply that  we  are  amazed  at  the  tardy  appearance 
of  the  solution. 

We  have  seen  that  long  before  this  time  metal 
shells  were  used  to  contain  the  powder  charge 
in  breechloaders,  as,  for  instance,  in  the  gun  of 
Philip  IV  of  Spain,  in  date  about  1650.  But 
prior  to  Houiller's  invention  the  tube  was  made 
of  iron  and  had  to  be  thick  and  strong  enough  to 
withstand  the  full  force  of  the  explosion;  other- 
wise it  would  stretch  or  burst  and  stick  fast.  Fur- 
thermore, the  thick  iron  shell,  if  fitted  tight 
enough  to  keep  back  the  gases,  would  expand 
from  the  heat  of  the  explosion,  and  could  be  with- 


166 


THE  GUN  BOOK 


drawn  only  after  it  had  cooled.  Copper,  on  the 
other  hand,  expands  very  little  by  heat  and,  be- 
ing quite  elastic,  stretches  readily  at  the  ex- 
plosion and  then  shrinks  again  to  its  former  size. 
Houiller's  great  discovery,  therefore,  lay  chiefly 


FIG.  39. — HOUILLER'S  PIN-FIRE  IGNITION  METHOD 
The  hammer  of  the  gun  striking  the  protruding  pin  set  off  the 
percussion  cap  within  the  shell.  This  shell  was  expensive, 
dangerous,  and  was  slow  in  loading  because  it  had  to  be 
inserted  into  the  gun  with  the  pin  exactly  perpendicular. 
On  account  of  these  defects,  its  career  was  short-lived. 


in  the  substitution  of  copper  for  iron  in  making 
the  cartridge  shell. 

The  ignition  device  which  Houiller  used  with 
his  copper  shell  did  not  prove  a  great  success.  It 
was  what  afterward  became  known  as  the  pin- 
fire,  a  variety  of  the  needle-gun  cartridge,  and 
worked  by  means  of  a  plunger  inserted  in  the  side 
of  the  shell  near  its  rear  end,  acting  against  the 
percussion  compound  placed  inside  the  cartridge. 
Of  course  the  hole  through  which  the  plunger  slid 
allowed  escape  of  some  gas,  and,  when  dropped  or 


ARRIVAL  OF  THE  BREECHLOADER    167 

accidentally  struck,  the  unprotected  pin  fre- 
quently caused  dangerous  explosions.  The  French 
genius,  recognizing  these  defects,  set  immediately 
to  work  to  correct  them.  His  efforts  shortly 
brought  forth  the  rim-fire  cartridge,  almost  as  we 


FIG.  40. — PEABODY  BREECH-LOADING  RIFLE 

In  the  Russo-Turkisn  war  of  1877  the  Turks,  armed  with  this 
excellent  American  rifle,  inflicted  fearful  punishment  upon 
their  more  numerous  adversaries.  It  has  been  said  that  the 
Peabody  rifle  in  the  hands  of  the  Turks  at  Plevna  convinced 
the  military  men  of  the  world  that  pick  and  spade  would 
soon  supplement  the  gun  on  the  battle-field — a  true  prophecy, 
as  we  have  since  seen.  The  breech  block  drops  down  to  admit 
insertion  of  the  new  cartridge,  when  the  lever  below  is 
operated. 

know  it  today,  in  which  the  powder  charge  is 
sealed  entirely.  As  this  plan  also  proved  to  have 
certain  objections,  principally  due  to  weakness 
of  the  shell,  the  untiring  Houiller  invented  the 
center-fire  system,  which  with  some  improvements 
serves  us  at  the  present  time. 

The  value  of  Houiller  ?s   inventions   was   first 
appreciated  in  America,  for  between  1855  and 


168  THE  GUN  BOOK 

1865  more  than  twenty  different  kinds  of  breech- 
loaders were  invented  and  put  on  the  market  here. 
Of  these  half  a  million  and  more  were  sold,  all 
using  the  new  cartridge  and  all  guns  of  great 
efficiency;  while  in  France,  the  home  of  the  dis- 
tinguished inventor,  we  find  German  and  French 


FIG.  41. — BERDAN  BREECH-LOADING  RIFLE 

The  Russians  used  this  American  rifle  as  their  military  arm  for 
many  years.  At  Plevna  it  was  far  outmatched  by  the  Pea- 
body  used  by  the  Turks.  The  breech  block  is  raised  by  the 
firer's  hand  to  eject  the  empty  shell  and  permit  a  new  one 
to  be  inserted. 

armies  even  in  1870  battling,  with  leaky  needle 
guns  and  chassepots,  using  paper  cartridges. 

Of  the  swarm  of  new  breechloaders  built  up 
around  Houiller's  copper  shell  we  have  space 
here  only  for  a  single  comment.  They  were 
divided  into  two  general  types,  the  " block"  and 
the  "bolt"  system.  Of  the  former  class  the  Pea- 
body  is  a  good  example.  It  has  a  solid  breech 
block  that  works  up  and  down  on  a  hinge  at  the 


ARRIVAL  OF  THE  BREECHLOADER    169 

rear  of  the  barrel,  dropping  for  the  admission  of 
the  cartridge  and  rising  again  to  hold  it  in  place 
while  being  discharged.  These  blocks  in  different 
guns  were  made  not  only  to  work  on  hinges,  swing- 
ing up,  down,  and  to  either  side  to  expose  the 
cartridge  chamber,  but  were  in  some  cases  made 
to  slide  up  and  down  as  in  the  Peabody  and 


FIG.  42. — BASE  OF  RIM-FIRE  CARTRIDGE  SHELL 
The  fulminate  is  thrown  into  the  fold  by  spinning  the  shell 
rapidly  while  in  an  upright  position,  at  the  same  time 
dropping  the  chemical  slowly  into  the  mouth.  The  cen- 
trifugal force  throws  the  dust-like  fulminate  into  the  fold 
evenly  all  around  its  circumference. 

Sharp's.  The  "bolt"  guns  differed  from  them 
in  that  they  opened  and  closed  by  means  of  a 
strong  rod  that  slid  straight  back  and  forth 
lengthwise  behind  the  barrel.  This  type,  of  which 
the  needle  gun  is  an  example,  proved  the  more 
successful  of  the  two,  especially  in  the  repeaters 
which  followed ;  in  consequence,  the  block  system, 
except  in  guns  of  small  caliber,  has  at  this  time 
entirely  disappeared. 

Houiller's  rim-fire  cartridge  was  at  first  the 
favorite  ignition  device  in  the  new  American 
breechloaders.  This  also  was  not  entirely  satis- 


170  THE  GUN  BOOK 

factory,  for  when  handled  carelessly  or  acci- 
dentally dropped,  it  frequently  exploded,  like  the 
pin-fire,  especially  in  heavy  ammunition.  Nor 
was  the  metal  strong  enough  to  withstand  well 
the  explosions  of  large  charges,  because  the  crimp- 
ing of  the  rim  weakened  the  material  so  much  that 
the  heads  were  occasionally  torn  open  or  blown 
off  the  shell  entirely.  Then  again,  misfires  were 
not  uncommon  in  its  use,  for  unless  the  percussion 
mixture  is  distributed  around  every  portion  of 
the  rim,  the  hammer  is  likely  to  fall  upon  the  spot 
that  happens  to  be  skipped,  when  the  shot  fails. 
These  defects,  far  more  prevalent  and  serious  in 
large  cartridges  than  in  small  ones,  called  so 
loudly  for  remedy  that  a  better  method  was 
sought  and  promptly  produced. 

To  give  a  stronger  shell,  but  one  still  elastic 
enough  to  expand  and  contract  readily  in  firing, 
brass  was  substituted  for  copper.  Then  in  order 
to  make  the  cartridge  safer,  more  certain  in  igni- 
tion, and  to  reduce  the  quantity  of  fulminate  re- 
quired, the  center-fire  system  was  developed  and 
applied,  in  place  of  the  rim-fire  method.  Houil- 
ler's  center-fire  shell  never  succeeded  because  his 
tube  was  too  weak  and  the  percussion  method  he 
used  was  imperfect ;  but  his  idea  was  sound,  need- 
ing only  the  right  means  to  carry  it  out. 


ARRIVAL  OF  THE  BREECHLOADER    171 

The  first  brass  center-fire  shells  were  made  in 
a  number  of  parts,  which  greatly  increased  their 
cost.  The  primer  had  to  have  an  anvil  in  front 
of  it  in  order  to  explode  when  struck  by  the 
hammer  or  firing  pin  of  the  gun.  How  to  supply 
this  anvil  and  still  produce  shells  cheaply  was  the 


FIG.  43. — BERDAN'S  SOLID  HEAD  CENTER-FIRE  CARTRIDGE  SHELL 
Of  brass,  invented  in  1870.  Earlier  center-fire  shells  were  made 
up  of  a  number  of  parts  which  rendered  them  so  costly  that 
soldiers  were  trained  to  recover  their  empty  shells  even  on 
the  battle-field  for  reloading.  By  the  Berdan  method  the 
shell  was  stamped  out  in  one  piece  with  an  upraised  anvil 
in  the  primer  cavity,  thus  greatly  improving  the  shell  and 
cheapening  its  manufacture.  Originally  the  igniting  fire 
was  admitted  to  the  charge  by  several  holes  around  the  edge 
of  the  anvil,  as  in  figure  a,  but  with  the  coming  of  smokeless 
powder,  requiring  a  more  concentrated  igniting  flame,  the 
form  in  figure  6  was  adopted,  having  a  single  orifice  and 
a  separate  anvil. 


knotty  point.  It  was  solved  by  General  Berdan 
of  the  United  States  army  about  1870.  He  orig- 
inated the  idea  of  stamping  the  shell  out  of  a 
single  piece  of  brass,  at  a  few  strokes  of  a  ma- 
chine, having  in  its  primer  cavity  an  anvil  which 
was  a  solid  part  of  the. shell  itself.  With  that 


172  THE  GUN  BOOK 

invention  center-fire   entirely   displaced   rim-fire 
cartridges,  except  in  those  of  small  sizes. 

In  paper  cartridges  for  shotguns  we  still  have 
the  old,  complicated  system  of  center-fire  igni- 
tion, in  which  several  different  pieces  must  be 


FIG.  44. — BASE  OF  A  MODERN  SHOTGUN  SHELL 
Made  of  paper  reinforced  with  metal.  The  igniting  apparatus, 
as  appears,  is  in  three  distinct  parts — the  containing  tube 
upon  which  the  anvil  rests,  the  anvil  and  the  primer  proper. 
The  thick  butt  of  the  paper  shell  makes  this  complicated 
construction  necessary  to  insure  ignition. 

employed.  The  paper  shell  with  the  thick  butt 
end  necessary  to  close  the  rear  of  the  tube  makes 
the  Berdan  idea  unworkable.  But  the  virtue  of 
the  paper  cartridges,  chiefly  their  cheapness  as 
compared  with  the  great  cost  of  such  large-sized 
shells  if  made  of  brass,  warrants  the  continuance 
of  the  old-fashioned  ignition  devices  in  these 
weapons. 

With  the  coming  of  smokeless  powder  (a  sub- 
ject to  be  dealt  with  later)  shell  and  primer  had 
again  to  be  slightly  changed  in  order  to  success- 
fully ignite  the  new  explosive.  The  latter  requires 


ARRIVAL  OF  THE  BREECHLOADER    173 

a  more  powerful  igniting  fire  than  gunpowder 
calls  for  and  in  order  to  concentrate  the  primer's 
flame  the  Berdan  anvil,  which  met  the  primer  in 
its  center,  allowing  the  flame  to  enter  the  shell 
through  perforations  at  its  sides,  has  been  dis- 
carded. We  now  find  the  shell  made  with  its 
cavity  perforated  at  its  center  with  a  single  hole, 
the  anvil  being  a  part  of  the  primer  and  seated 
at  the  bottom  of  the  cavity  when  in  place.  Thus 
when  the  primer  is  struck,  the  igniting  flame  all 


FIG.  45. — U.  S.  GOVERNMENT  CARTRIDGE  Now  IN  USE 
This  is  the  famous  .30-caliber  cartridge  used  in  our  Spring- 
field service  rifle,  model  1906,  and  in  the  new  Spring- 
field-Enfield,  model  1917.  In  both  guns  the  cartridge  is 
showing  remarkable  results.  It  produces  a  chamber  pressure 
of  51,000  Ibs.  per  square  inch  and  will  kill  at  over  two 
miles  distance.  As  the  bullet  leaves  the  muzzle  it  spins  at 
the  terrific  rate  of  3,240  revolutions  per  second.  In  the  old 
.45-caliber  guns  800  revolutions  per  second  were  considered 
a  rapid  rate  of  rotation. 

enters  the  cartridge  through  the  one  orifice, 
giving  the  concentration  necessary  in  setting  off 
the  slow-burning  charge. 

Such,  therefore,  is  the  story  of  the  successful 
breechloader,  the  final  fruit  of  ages  of  endeavor, 
aided  in  one  way  or  another  by  men  of  many 
different  nations;  but  indebted  more  particularly 


174  THE  GUN  BOOK 

to    Forsyth,    the    Scotchman,s   and    Houiller    of 
France. 

Though  the  full  value  of  efficient  breech-loading 
is  not  easily  estimated,  a  few  points  stand  out 
clearly.  Through  it  the  rifle  became  an  easy  and 
quick-loading  weapon;  the  long-pointed  bullet, 
with  its  low  air  resistance  and  consequent  long 
flight,  became  the  common  missile ;  while  misfires 
were  reduced  to  less  than  one  in  a  thousand 
shots.  Then  again,  of  the  powder  prepared  for 
use  in  the  old-time  musket  nearly  half  was  spoiled 
and  wasted  from  dampness  or  misfires,  and  from 
being  spilled  upon  the  ground  in  use;  while  now 
the  hand  gunner,  with  his  waterproof  metallic 
shells,  uses  his  full  supply  in  producing  gas  be- 
hind his  bullet  to  drive  it  forward.  Furthermore, 
with  this  improved  ammunition  the  breechloader 
soon  became  a  repeater,  the  growth  of  which  we 
shall  next  consider. 


CHAPTER  XII 

ARRIVAL  OF  THE  REPEATER 

A  GUN  that  would  deliver  successive  shots  rap- 
idly has  from  the  beginning  been  one  of  the  chief 
goals  of  inventors  in  firearms.  Especially  for 
the  soldier  was  this  quality  desirable,  for  on  the 
battle-field  the  man  who  could  shoot  twice  while 
his  opponent  was  shooting  once  became  almost 
doubly  effective.  The  superiority  of  the  bow  and 
arrow  in  rapidity  of  shooting,  as  has  appeared, 
kept  the  hand  gun  in  the  background  for  the  first 
two  centuries  of  its  existence;  while  the  smooth- 
bore, for  the  same  reason,  claimed  priority  over 
the  rifle  for  centuries  after  that.  But  great  as 
were  the  advantages  of  quick  firing,  little  prog- 
ress was  made  in  this  respect  until  recent  years. 

The  first  person  who  seems  to  have  tried 
methodically  to  quicken  the  firing  of  the  musket 
was  Frederick  the  Great,  about  1750.  Limited  in 
the  number  of  his  soldiers  and  beset  on  every 
hand  by  enemies  much  more  numerous  than  he 
could  bring  into  the  field,  he  was  compelled  to 

175 


176  THE  GUN  BOOK 

increase  the  efficiency  of  his  small  armies  in  order 
to  hold  his  own.  By  teaching  his  men  to  load 
systematically,  performing  the  operation  in  a 
definite  number  of  movements,  each  timed  exactly, 
he  succeeded  in  increasing  the  number  of  shots 
from  one  in  a  minute  to  twice  that  number.  This 


FIG.  46. — MUZZLE-LOADING  SPRINGFIELD  SMOOTH-BORE 
Used,  with  slight  variations,  down  to  and  through  our  Civil 
War.  It  shot  spherical  balls  usually  14%  to  the  pound. 
Observe  how  for  over  a  hundred  years  we  have  tenaciously 
clung  to  the  name  Springfield  for  our  standard  military 
weapon.  The  British  have  similarly  been  wedded  to  the 
name  Enfield.  Now  the  two  names  have  joined  in  the 
Springfield-Enfield  rifle — symbolizing  the  unity  of  purpose 
of  the  two  great  peoples  in  their  present  fight  for  freedom. 


gain  was  in  no  small  measure  due  to  the  intro- 
duction of  a  ramrod  made  of  iron,  an  idea  of  one 
of  Frederick's  officers,  which  gave  more  weight 
and  strength  than  the  wooden  sticks  formerly 
used  for  that  purpose.  The  pace  thus  set  by  the 
Prussian  soldiers  was  never  much  bettered  with 
muzzle-loaders,  for  in  our  Civil  War  this  type  of 
gun,  even  with  percussion  caps,  was  not  expected 
to  be  fired  more  than  twice  in  a  minute. 

The  earliest  attempts  to  make  rapid-shooting 
guns  was  by  adding  one  or  more  additional  bar- 


ARRIVAL  OF  THE  REPEATER 


177 


IPs 

KL    02    fcj    H 


178  THE  GUN  BOOK 

rels  to  the  weapon,  to  be  fired  in  succession,  a 
practice  still  continued  by  us  in  shotguns.  Then 
there  were  guns  made  with  revolving  cylinders 
placed  behind  a  single  barrel,  just  as  our  revolvers 
are  made  today.  The  multi-barrel  guns,  however, 
were  too  heavy  for  ordinary  use;  while  those  of 
the  cylinder  type  not  only  leaked  gas  badly  at 
the  junction  of  cylinder  and  barrel,  but  their 
workmanship  was  too  imperfect  to  place  the 
cylinder  always  in  the  correct  position  for  firing. 
Nothing  much,  therefore,  ever  came  of  these  ideas. 
There  was  also  another  type  of  weapon  de- 
signed for  rapid  shooting  which  appeared  from 
time  to  time,  only  to  be  as  often  discarded.  It 
used  a  single  barrel,  but  would  receive  a  number 
of  loads,  one  on  top  of  the  other,  separated  by 
thick  wads.  Each  charge  usually  had  its  own: 
flash  pan,  while  the  firing  device  was  slid  along 
on  a  shelf -like  projection  at  the  side,  opposite  the 
pans.  In  the  arquebuse  this  device  was  the  match, 
while  in  the  musket  type  flint  and  steel  were  used. 
These  guns  must  have  been  dangerous,  for  even 
though  the  separating  wads  between  the  charges 
might  be  tight  and  thick  enough  to  prevent  ex- 
plosion of  more  than  one  load  at  a  time,  there 
was  always  danger  of  igniting  fire  jumping  from 
one  flash  pan  to  another.  Then,  too,  the  powder 


ARRIVAL  OF  THE  REPEATER  179 

in  the  rearmost  charges  must  have  been  jammed 
into  solid  masses  by  the  previous  explosions  be- 
fore they  were  reached  in  their  order,  thus  making 
ignition  almost  impossible.  At  any  rate,  such 


FIG.  48. — ORIGINAL  COLT  REVOLVER 

The  weapon  that  displaced  the  sword  as  the  common  weapon  of 
self-defense. 


guns,  ingenious  as  they  were,  did  not  get  beyond 
the  experimental  stage. 

In  1835  Samuel  Colt  of  Connecticut  produced 
the  first  gun  which  successfully  fired  more  than 
one  shot  without  reloading.  That  was  of  the 
cylinder  and  single-barrel  type  and  has  already 
been  mentioned.  Its  mechanism  is  more  particu- 
larly described  in  a  later  chapter  on  revolvers,  in 
which  class  of  weapons  Colt's  invention  achieved 
its  triumph.  The  Colt  rifle  was  used  by  United 
States  troops  with  excellent  results,  as  well  as 
by  hunters  and  plainsmen  on  the  frontier,  con- 


180  THE  GUN  BOOK 

tinuing  for  several  years  after  its  appearance  a 
popular  arm.  Some  say  it  was  not  a  repeater, 
but  only  a  modification  of  the  multi-barreled 
weapon,  but  this  contention  depends  only  upon 
whether  or  not  the  cylinder  can  be  called  a  maga- 
zine. The  distinction  is  too  fine  to  be  important. 


FIG.  49. — A  LATER  TYPE  OF  COLT  REVOLVER 

Showing  cylinder  hinged  to  fall  to  one  side  for  easy  extraction 
of  shells  and  reloading. 

The  solid  fact  was  that  Colt  could  with  his  gun 
fire  as  many  shots  from  his  single  barrel  as  there 
were  chambers  in  his  cylinder,  without  stopping 
to  reload;  and  this  had  never  before  been  suc- 
cessfully done.  Colt's  system,  however,  allowed 
too  much  leakage  of  gas  with  the  heavy  powder 
charges  necessary  in  rifles,  so  that  the  want  of  a 
good  repeater  was  left  unfilled  until  the  breech- 
loader with  fixed  ammunition  arrived.  Then  in 
the  year  1860  the  long  sought  for  weapon  ap- 
peared. 


ARRIVAL  OF  THE  REPEATER  181 

In  that  year  the  American  gun  called  the 
Spencer  came,  a  true  repeater,  capable  of  firing 
sixteen  shots  per  minute.  The  Civil  War  began 
shortly  after  its  introduction,  so  that  many  thou- 
sands of  them  were  made  and  issued  to  Union 
cavalry  for  use  in  that  struggle,  in  which  they 


FIG.  50. — COLT'S  REVOLVER,  WITH  JOINTED  RAMROD 
One  of  Samuel  Colt's  most  valuable  improvements  in  firearms  was 
the  loading  device  he  affixed  to  his  rifles  and  revolvers.  A 
representation  of  it  is  given  here,  a  is  a  short  ramrod 
which  entered  the  mouth  of  the  cylinder  chamber  c  opposite 
it,  ramming  down  the  powder  and  then  the  ball  as  the  lever 
&  was  drawn  downward.  Thus  one  by  one  the  several  cham- 
bers were  loaded  with  great  dexterity  as  such  things  went 
with  the  muzzle-loader  of  1840. 


gave  remarkable  results.  It  was  calculated  that 
one  man  armed  with  the  Spencer,  and  acting  on 
the  defensive  from  cover,  was  equal  to  six  men 
advancing  upon  him  with  muzzle-loaders.  A  lever 
swinging  backward  under  the  barrel,  after  the 
manner  of  the  Sharp's,  threw  out  the  empty  shell 
and  inserted  a  fresh  cartridge,  whiclf  operation 


182  THE  GUN  BOOK 

could  be  performed  without  removing  the  gun 
from  the  shoulder  or  taking  the  eyes  from  the 
target.  The  magazine,  a  tube  passing  lengthwise 
through  the  stock,  was  filled  at  the  butt.  This 
held  seven  cartridges,  which,  with  the  one  in  the 
chamber,  made  eight  in  all.  The  hammer,  how- 


FIG.  51. — SPENCER  REPEATING  RIFLE 

a,  follower;  6,  carrier  block;  c,  lever  guard;  d,  breech  block; 

e,  extractor;  /,  guide. 

ever,  had  to  be  drawn  back  with  the  thumb  after 
each  shot.  The  closing  device  was  of  the  block 
type,  sliding  up  and  down  at  the  breech,  as  in 
the  Sharp's.  The  gun  used  rim-fire  ignition, 
with  .56-caliber  bullets.  The  missile  was  short, 
pointed,  and  stumpy  looking,  and  weighed  400 
grains,  with  only  45  grains  of  powder  to  propel 
it,  because  the  shells  were  of  copper,  which  ren- 
dered them  too  weak  to  resist  heavy  charges  of 
powder.  In  its  day,  nevertheless,  the  Spencer  was 
considered  a  marvel. 


ARRIVAL  OF  THE  REPEATER  183 

The  writer  as  a  boy  in  the  early  eighties  was 
the  proud  possessor  of  one  of  these  guns,  even 
then  growing  old-fashioned,  and  distinctly  recalls 
one  aggravating  defect  in  it,  which  often  marred 
his  pleasure  in  hunting.  The  frail  copper  shells 
had  a  habit  of  frequently  sticking  in  the  chamber 
after  firing,  for  copper  corrodes  when  damp,  mak- 
ing the  surface  of  the  shell  rough;  then  the  ex- 
tractor would  bend  back  the  soft  rim,  leaving  the 
shell  in  the  gun.  It  often  took  much  self-control 
not  to  lose  one's  temper  when,  with  gun  out  of 
commission,  another  shot  was  wanted  at  once,  to 
bring  down  an  escaping  deer  or  antelope.  In 
spite  of  its  defects,  however,  the  Spencer 
had  great  popularity  among  the  rifle-carry- 
ing frontiersmen  until  late  in  the  seventies, 
when  it  was  forced  to  make  way  for  a  better 
gun. 

The  Henry  repeater,  another  American  prod- 
uct, came  into  existence  not  long  after  the  Spencer, 
and,  like  it,  was  used  to  some  extent  by  Northern 
troops  in  the  later  days  of  the  Civil  War.  Its 
breech-closing  device  was  of  the  bolt  type,  and 
the  magazine  was  a  tube  attached  to  the  under 
side  of  the  barrel,  holding  fifteen  cartridges  put 
in  place  from  the  front  end.  Thirty  shots  per 
minute  were  possible  with  this  gun.  The  car- 


184  THE  GUN  BOOK 

tridge  shell  was  of  copper  and  had  rim-fire  igni- 
tion, as  in  the  Spencer.  A  lever  underneath 
threw  out  the  empty  shell,  put  a  new  one  in  place, 
and  at  the  same  time,  going  the  Spencer  one 
better,  cocked  the  gun,  all  at  one  operation.  The 
sliding  bolt,  too,  proved  to  be  a  more  effective 
closing  device  than  the  Spencer's  block,  because 
the  shell  was  backed  up  better  and  made  bursting 
of  rims  at  the  explosion  less  common.  These 
superior  features  awarded  the  Henry  precedence 
over  the  Spencer,  the  latter  giving  up  the  field 
before  1880.  Upon  being  changed  from  rim-fire 
to  center-fire,  and  so  built  as  to  permit  charging 
the  magazine  from  the  breech  instead  of  the  front, 
with  some  important  improvements  which  per- 
mitted a  heavier  charge  of  powder  to  be  used,  the 
Henry  a  year  or  two  after  the  Civil  War  was 
rechristened  the  "Winchester,"  under  which 
name  we  know  it  well  today.  As  improved  again 
with  an  operating  mechanism  devised  by  Brown- 
ing, it  stands  as  one  of  the  best  of  several  other 
good  repeaters  which  have  grown  up  beside  it, 
and  differ  from  it  only  in  details. 

The  repeating  rifle  as  a  sporting  weapon  re- 
mains, as  it  began,  a  distinctively  American  in- 
stitution. Europeans  who  in  private  life  use  guns 
chiefly  for  target  practice  and  for  killing  birds 


ARRIVAL  OF  THE  REPEATER          185 

and  small  game  find  the  single-shot  rifle  and  the 
double-barreled  shotgun  sufficient  for  their  pur- 
poses ;  while  those  daring  individuals  who  venture 
into  the  fastnesses  of  Africa  or  India  seeking  big 
game,  such  as  elephants,  tigers,  and  lions,  seem 
to  find  the  single-shot  or  double-barreled  rifle  of 
large  bore,  using  heavy  powder  charges,  best  for 
that  purpose.  Those  who  carry  repeaters  on 
these  expeditions  usually  choose  those  of  Ameri- 
can manufacture.  In  our  country,  however,  the 
repeater  is  the  standard  weapon  for  nearly  all 
purposes. 

In  the  South  American  war  in  1890  the  Win- 
chester revealed  the  power  of  repeating  arms  on 
the  battle-field,  and  gave  a  hint  of  the  great 
changes  which  such  weapons  were  to  bring  about 
in  warfare.  There  the  Chileans,  attacked  by  the 
joint  armies  of  Peru  and  Bolivia,  were  armed 
with  Winchesters,  while  their  adversaries  used 
single-shot  breechloaders.  Largely  by  the  aid  of 
their  faster  shooting  guns  the  Chileans  over- 
whelmed their  enemies  almost  every  time  they 
could  be  made  to  stand  and  fight,  and  quickly  im- 
posed peace  on  terms  to  suit  themselves.  The 
value  of  the  repeater  to  the  soldier  thus  demon- 
strated, forced  military  authorities  the  world  over 
to  give  grave  heed  to  that  type  of  weapon,  with 


186  THE  GUN  BOOK 

the  result  that  it  was  soon  after  adopted  by  all 
armies. 

Military  experts  had,  since  the  introduction  of 
good  breechloaders,  pinned  their  faith  to  the 
single-shot  variety  on  account  of  its  simplicity 
for  one  thing,  but  more  especially  upon  the  claim 
that  the  soldier  carrying  a  repeater  would  fire 
away  ammunition  too  lavishly;  thus  reversing 
their  age-long  appeal  for  a  faster-shooting 
weapon.  This  objection  has  been  met,  however, 
partly  by  teaching  the  trooper  to  exercise  self- 
restraint  in  the  use  of  his  cartridges  and  partly 
by  increasing  the  number  of  rounds  carried  into 
battle,  this  latter  recourse  being  made  possible 
by  the  light  weight  of  the  modern  bullet.  The 
production  of  a  simple  repeater  of  few  parts  was, 
on  the  other  hand,  a  more  difficult  proposition. 
The  soldier's  gun  must  always  be  simple  in  con- 
struction, with  parts  as  few  and  as  strong  as 
possible.  Rough  usage  is  unavoidable  in  cam- 
paigning; and  then  the  soldier  in  the  excitement 
of  battle  is  not  likely  to  treat  his  weapon  as 
gently  in  operating  it  as  a  man  calmly  shooting 
over  a  target  range.  Hence  such  arms  must  be 
so  built  as  to  work  without  either  balking  or 
breaking  under  even  savage  use.  As  with  all 
other  machines,  the  gun  with  fewest  and  strongest 


ARRIVAL  OF  THE  REPEATER 


187 


188  THE  GUN  BOOK 

parts  will  be  found  the  most  reliable,  therefore 
the  modern  military  repeater,  considering  the 
Work  it  will  do,  is  an  exceedingly  simple 
instrument. 

The  Winchester  type  of  repeater  has  never 
gained  much  favor  with  military  men,  because 
they  claim  it  to  be  too  delicate  for  warfare,  which 
probably  is  true.  They  object  also  to  the  tubular 
magazine  under  the  barrel,  for  the  reason  that, 
as  it  empties,  the  remaining  cartridges  slide  to 
the  rear,  thus  shifting  weight  and  affecting  the 
gun's  balance.  It  is  said  that  this  seriously  af- 
fects the  aim  during  continuous*  firing,  which  is 
partially  true,  though  the  average  sportsman 
finds  little  to  complain  of  on  this  score.  The 
hunter  and  target  shooter,  however,  are  not  often 
called  upon  to  stand  and  shoot  a  dozen  shots  one 
after  another  as  the  soldier  may  have  to  do,  and 
hence  both  parties  may  be  right  in  judging  their 
several  needs. 

About  1890  there  sprang  up  in  Europe  a  new 
repeating  system  which  has  been  generally 
adopted  in  all  modern  military  arms.  The  car- 
tridges, instead  of  being  slipped  into  a  magazine 
one  by  one,  are  prepared  for  the  soldier  in  groups 
of  about  five  fastened  together  by  a  metal  clip, 
so  the  gun  is  charged  by  having  one  of  these 


ARRIVAL  OF  THE  REPEATER          189 

packages  thrust  into  it  from  below  the  lock.  Thus 
while  the  total  charge  is  less  than  that  of  the 
tubular  magazine,  and  the  loading  operation 
necessarily  more  frequent,  yet  the  time  saved  by 
the  inserting  of  a  number  of  cartridges  at  one 
time  renders  the  two  methods  about  equal  in  ra- 
pidity of  fire.  Twenty  aimed  shots  per  minute  are 
easily  possible  with  either. 

Along  with  the  general  adoption  of  the  clip- 
charging  system,  a  breech  mechanism  has  been 
developed  for  military  arms  which  does  not 
differ  greatly  in  any  country.  This  is  the  top 
bolt  system,  a  very  old  idea,  but  first  commonly 
seen  in  the  von  Dreyse  needle  gun  of  Prussia,  by 
which  the  breech-closing  bolt  is  drawn  back 
directly  by  the  hand  instead  of  a  lever.  The 
operation  throws  out  the  old  shell,  inserts  a 
cartridge,  and  cocks  the  piece,  all  in  one  motion. 
The  mechanisms  of  the  principal  military  guns 
now  in  use  differ  little  from  each  other  in 
principle. 

The  introduction  of  the  repeating  rifle  in  war- 
fare has  not  increased  slaughter  on  the  battle- 
field, as  many  dire  predictions  held.  The  result 
has  been  that  armies  now  begin  to  fight  at  greater 
distances  and  only  approach  each  other  by 
stealth,  or  under  cover.  The  old  frontal  attack 


190  THE  GUN  BOOK 

has  been  rendered  obsolete,  except  after  heavy 
battering  of  the  enemy's  line  by  artillery;  but 
flanking  movements  where  space  permits  are  still 
profitable,  as  the  Japanese  demonstrated  in  their 
recent  war  with  Russia.  Reconnoissance  has  be- 
come impossible  on  account  of  rapid  long-range 
rifle  fire,  though  the  aeroplane  fulfils  that  service 
now  better  than  infantry  or  cavalry  ever  did. 
The  result  has  been  that  in  the  Boer  War  and 
that  in  Manchuria,  as  well  as  in  the  mighty  strug- 
gle now  in  progress  in  Europe,  considering  the 
number  of  men  engaged  and  the  time  through 
which  the  conflicts  last,  the  percentage  of  casual- 
ties does  not  now  exceed  those  of  Cold  Harbor, 
Shiloh,  or  Gettysburg. 

The  fact  that  our  soldiers  are  now  carrying  in  Europe 
two  different  types  of  rifles,  the  Springfield  proper  and 
the  Springfield-Enfield,  is  due  to  circumstances  which 
attended  our  hasty  entrance  into  the  war.  The  6th  of 
April,  1917,  found  us  in  open  hostilities  with  Germany, 
and  in  instant  need  of  huge  well-armed  forces.  We 
had  the  men,  but  not  the  guns  with  which  to  equip 
them;  nor  had  we  the  factories  necessary  to  turn  out 
our  standard  service  rifles  promptly  in  the  needed 
quantities.  Our  authorities  were  therefore  compelled 
to  cast  about  for  other  expedients.  In  our  country 
were  gun  factories  of  large  capacity  executing  contracts 
for  the  manufacture  of  Enfield  rifles  for  the  British 
Government,  which  contracts  were  about  completed.  As 
these  plants  could  not  quickly  alter  their  equipment  for 


ARRIVAL  OF  THE  REPEATER          191 

the  production  of  Springfields,  our  War  Department 
decided  to  set  them  to  work  turning  out  Enfields  slightly 
altered  to  permit  the  use  of  Springfield  ammunition. 
The  rifle  resulting  is  the  so-called  Springfield-Enfield. 
In  outer  form,  breech  mechanism,  and  shooting  power 
the  new  gun  does  not  differ  materially  from  our  standard 
service  rifle;  so  that  the  soldier  may  change  from  one 
to  the  other  without  much  embarrassment.  Both  guns 
are  of  the  bolt  type,  and  are  charged  by  means  of  clips 
inserted  from  below  the  lock.  Using  the  same  ammuni- 
tion, of  course,  calibers  of  both  guns  are  identical.  The 
Springfield  is  one  pound  the  lighter,  the  barrel  of  the 
new  weapon  being  twenty-six  inches  long  as  compared 
with  the  Springfield 's  twenty-four  inches.  One  of  the 
variations  between  the  two  weapons  is  in  the  rifling 
employed,  for  while  the  Springfield  is  given  four  lands 
with  right-hand  twist,  the  new  rifle  retains  the  five 
lands  and  left-hand  twist  of  the  British  Enfield.  Just 
what  virtue  lies  in  the  spinning  of  the  bullet  toward 
the  left  instead  of  the  right  no  one  has  ever  been  able 
to  explain  satisfactorily,  but  it  is  a  practice  long  favored 
in  British  military  circles.  The  Springfield-Enfield, 
however,  according  to  reports,  is  proving  equal,  if  not 
superior,  to  either  of  the  types  from  which  it  sprang. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

TRAJECTORIES  AND  SMALL  BORES 

THE  American  rifle  of  1870  seemed  for  the  time 
being  to  be  such  a  nearly  perfect  weapon  that 
many  optimistic  persons  declared  further  sub- 
stantial progress  impossible.  The  brass  shell  cre- 
ated a  gas-tight  breechloader  into  which  pointed 
bullets  could  easily  be  loaded;  the  percussion 
primer  made  ignition  certain,  while  the  repeating 
feature  gave  great  rapidity  of  fire.  In  the  light 
of  such  advantages  the  boast  did  not  at  first  glance 
appear  an  idle  one.  But  Hall  sixty  years  before 
had  made  the  same  claim  of  perfection,  and  we 
have  seen  how  far  he  came  wide  of  the  mark. 
The  later  prophets,  too,  were  overbold,  for  with 
all  its  merits  the  rifle  was  still  but  mediocre  for 
long-distance  shooting. 

In  1870  there  was  no  breech-loading  gun  which, 
in  spite  of  all  its  virtues,  could  send  a  missile  as 
fast  and  as  straight  as  the  simple  muzzle-loader 
of  a  generation  before  shooting  the  sugar-loaf 
bullet.  The  latter,  with  its  thin  form  and  fine 

192 


TRAJECTORIES  AND  SMALL  BORES     193 

lines,  driven  by  a  heavy  powder  charge,  still  led 
the  field  in  long,  straight  shooting,  furnishing,  in 
these  respects,  an  ideal  toward  which  the  newer 
and  more  pretentious  weapons  had  to  strive. 

The  trouble  with  the  later  guns  was  that,  for 
reasons  shortly  to  be  stated,  they  had  to  use 
bullets  of  large  diameter,  driven  at  low  speed; 
and  these  conditions  were  fatal  to  accuracy  over 
long  ranges.  In  the  language  of  gunnery,  such 
missiles  were  too  high  in  trajectory.  We  have 
not  used  this  word  before,  though  the  problem  it 
involves  has  attended  the  gun  and  its  projectiles 
of  all  forms  from  the  very  beginning.  Discussion 
of  this  subject  has  seemed  best  withheld  until  this 
time,  when  we  propose  in  this  and  succeeding 
chapters  to  take  up  the  whole  matter  of  the  flight 
of  the  elongated  bullet.  Let  us  now  see  what  is 
meant  by  trajectory. 

If  you  will  go  to  the  top  of  a  house  and  drop  a 
bullet  from  your  hand  it  will  fall  (nearly)  16  feet 
the  first  second,  48  feet  the  next  second,  80  feet 
during  the  third,  and  so  on  in  the  same  ratios  of 
increased  speed  and  distance.  Using  this  for  il- 
lustration: the  total  distance  fallen  by  the  bullet 
during  the  first  three  seconds  will  be  144  feet, 
i.e.:  16  ft.  (1st  second),  48  ft.  (2d  second),  80  ft. 
(3d  second). 


194  ^HE  GUN  BOOK 

These  distances  are  only  approximate,  for  a 
body  falling  through  air  is  somewhat  retarded 
by  it,  the  amount  varying  with  different  condi- 
tions. Dampness  in  the  atmosphere  slows  up  a 
bullet  substantially,  while  its  pace  is  faster  if  the 
air  be  unusually  dry;  cold  air  offers  more  resist- 
ance than  hot,  and  at  high  altitudes  the  thinner 
air  permits  an  easier  passage  than  the  denser 
medium  at  sea-level.  Then  again,  since  the  earth 
is  thicker  at  the  equator  than  at  the  poles,  gravity 
increases  a  little  as  we  go  southward  in  our 
hemisphere.  Therefore,  though  we  generally 
speak  of  the  velocities  of  falling  bodies,  as  in  the 
preceding  paragraph,  the  figures  are  subject  to 
slight  variations. 

The  point  to  be  noticed  especially  is  that  the 
longer  an  object  is  in  the  air  the  faster  it  falls, 
and  hence  the  greater  the  distances  it  will  cover 
as  it  proceeds.  The  missile  fired  from  the  gun 
is  pulled  down  by  gravity  just  as  when  dropped 
at  a  height  from  the  hand,  so  that  the  time  it  con- 
sumes in  making  its  journey  to  the  target  becomes 
a  very  important  matter. 

For  instance,  if  you  are  going  to  shoot 
at  a  mark  2,000  feet  away,  and  your  bullet  has 
just  enough  powder  behind  it  to  make  it  reach 
there  in  three  seconds  you  will  have  to  aim  144 


TRAJECTORIES  AND  SMALL  BORES     195 

feet  above  the  bull's-eye,  because  that  is  the  dis- 
tance gravity  will  pull  it  down  in  three  seconds. 
Its  course,  therefore,  will  not  be  a  straight  line, 
but  a  curve  up  from  the  gun  muzzle  to  a  point 
just  past  the  middle  of  the  flight  and  then  down 
again  to  the  target.  The  curve  so  described  is 
called  the  curve  of  trajectory. 

If  the  supposed  target  be  2,000  feet  away  and 
the  bullet  can  reach  it  in  two  seconds  the  aim 
need  be  only  64  feet  above  the  bull's-eye,  for  that 
is  the  drop  the  missile  will  make  in  two  seconds. 

Suppose,  however,  that  you  can  send  your 
bullet  fast  enough  to  cover  the  desired  2,000  feet 
in  a  single  second,  see  what  a  difference!  The 
elevation  necessary  is  only  16  feet  instead  of  144 
or  64.  That  first  second  is,  then,  the  important 
one,  to  be  utilized  to  its  fullest  extent,  for  during 
it  disturbance  by  gravity  is  comparatively  slight. 
Making  the  most  of  the  first  second  means  a  flat 
trajectory  curve,  less  time  for  a  living  target  to 
move  out  of  reach,  and  greater  chances  in  every 
way  of  hitting  the  mark  aimed  at.  To  impart  this 
early  speed  to  the  bullet  is  the  vital  requisite. 

In  actual  shooting 'the  gun-sights  are  so  ar- 
ranged as  to  allow  for  the  necessary  elevation  at 
various  distances,  and  though  the  sights  are  to 
be  held  exactly  on  the  mark,  the  muzzle  is  always 


196  THE  GUN  BOOK 

pointed  upward  more  or  less.  Of  course  no  bullet 
can  be  driven  so  fast  that  gravity  will  not  pull 
it  down  in  some  degree,  for  the  moment  it  leaves 
the  supporting  gun  barrel  and  enters  the  air, 
gravity  grips,  it  and  drags  it  downward,  the  dis- 
tance depending  on  the  time  the  force  is  allowed 
to  act.  All  we  can  ever  do  to  offset  gravity  is  to 
reduce  its  effect  by  shortening  the  time  of  its 
operation. 

Just  to  prove  to  yourself  the  baneful  effect  of 
high  trajectory  on  a  marksman's  bullet,  set  a  tin 
can  off  about  fifty  feet  and  try  to  hit  it  with  stones 
thrown  upward  and  allowed  to  drop.  When  you 
have  satisfied  yourself  of  the  difficulty  of  this 
feat,  throw  a  few  stones  at  the  can,  giving  them 
speed,  and  note  how  much  better  will  be  your 
record  of  hits.  As  with  the  stones,  so  it  is  with 
the  rifle  bullet.  The  plunge  downward  from  a 
height  makes  accuracy  doubly  hard. 

In  target  shooting  high  trajectories  are  not  so 
disturbing,  for  there  the  rifleman  usually  knows 
his  ranges  and  can  make  the  necessary  adjust- 
ments of  his  sights  for  distance  and  wind.  But  con- 
sider the  plight  of  the  soldier  or  hunter  who  has  to 
guess  hastily  at  his  distances  and  make  the  neces- 
sary allowances  for  over  or  under  shooting,  or  for 
the  movement  of  the  air.  If  lie  aims  a  little  too 


TRAJECTORIES  AND  SMALL  BORES     197 

high  the  bullet  comes  down  beyond  the  mark,  while 
if  he  sights  too  low  the  missile  falls  short.  For 
this  mischief  the  fast  bullet  with  low  trajectory 
is  the  only  cure. 

In  artillery  the  high  trajectory  and  plunging 
fire  are  in  some  cases  really  virtues,  for  because 
of  them  the  cannoneer  can  post  his  guns  behind 
the  battle  line  and  throw  projectiles  at  the  enemy 
over  the  heads  of  his  fellows.  But  unless  the  dis- 
tances are  accurately  known  such  fire  is  of  little 
effect,  except  with  bursting  shell  or  shrapnel  that 
scatter  missiles  over  a  wide  space.  For  the  rifle- 
man shooting  single  balls  high  trajectory  is  al- 
most always  a  detriment. 

Going  back  now  to  the  problem  in  trajectory 
which  gun  inventors  faced  in  the  period  from,  say, 
1870  to  1890,  let  us  glance  at  some  of  the  perform- 
ances of  bullets  from  their  weapons.  Take, 
for  instance,  a  popular  hunting  cartridge  then 
in  use  of  .45  caliber.  With  its  usual  powder 
charge  it  emerged  from  the  gun  muzzle  at  a  speed 
of  1,350  feet  per  second.  When  aimed  at  a  target 
one  hundred  yards  distant  it  rose  only  three  feet 
above  the  line  of  sight,  but  so  great  was  the  air 
resistance  it  encountered  in  longer  flights  that, 
when  fired  at  a  target  two  hundred  yards  away, 
the  upward  curve  had  to  be  twelve  and  a  half  feet 


198  THE  GUN  BOOK 

high.  At  a  three-hundred-yard  target  its  final 
velocity  became  so  low  that  thirty  feet  of  eleva- 
tion had  to  be  allowed.  At  three  times  the  dis- 
tance the  trajectory  arc  was  multiplied  by  ten. 

The  Springfield  military  rifle,  with  which  the 
United  States  army  was  armed  during  the  period 
in  question,  fired  its  bullet  thirty-five  feet  above 
the  line  of  sight  at  three  hundred  yards.  In  all 
the  guns  of  which  these  are  types  the  elevation 
necessary  increased  enormously  as  the  distance 
shot  over  was  even  moderately  lengthened,  be- 
cause the  bullet  was  longer  in  the  air  and  subject 
to  the  accumulated  pull  of  gravity. 

Why,  then,  were  these  high  trajectories  tol- 
erated? At  first  glance  one  might  say  that  merely 
adding  powder  to  the  charge  would  speed  the 
bullet  and  so  give  the  desired  flatter  curve.  There 
were  several  reasons  why  this  plan  would  not 
work,  not  the  least  of  them  being  the  increase  in 
recoil  and  low  efficiency  of  the  heavier  charge. 
The  weight  of  the  rifle  had  become  so  firmly  fixed 
at  about  ten  pounds  that  men  could  not  be  induced 
to  go  back  to  heavier  ones.  With  bullet  and  gun 
remaining  of  the  same  weight,  and  the  recoil  al- 
ready as  great  as  could  be  borne,  it  is  plain  that 
additional  powder  was  not  a  solution  of  the  dif- 
ficulty. 


TRAJECTORIES  AND  SMALL  BORES     199 

Of  course  greater  speed  can  be  imparted  to  the 
bullet  with  the  same  powder  charge,  without  in- 
creasing recoil,  by  simply  using  less  lead.  But 
this  expedient  produces  fresh  troubles,  even 
greater  than  high  trajectory.  When  a  bullet  is 
left  of  the  same  diameter  and  made  lighter  by 
shortening  it  the  amount  of  air  it  must  displace 
in  flight  is  not  materially  decreased,  for  it  must 
still  bore  as  big  a  hole  through  the  atmosphere 
as  ever.  Lessening  weight,  too,  lessens  power, 
speed  remaining  the  same. 

But  in  order  that  two  bullets,  one  weighing  400 
grains,  the  other  200,  may  be  made  to  do  the  same 
work,  the  lighter  will  have  to  be  made  travel  twice 
as  fast.  Their  momentum  is  then  said  to  be  equal. 
Now  comes  the  surprising  thing.  When  both  of 
these  bullets  are  traveling  at  a  speed  greater  than 
1,350  feet  per  second  the  air  resistance  which  the 
lighter,  faster  one  must  meet  is  four  times  as 
great  as  that  of  the  slower,  assuming  that  the 
areas  of  their  cross-sections  are  equal.  This  is 
because  missiles  of  the  same  diameter  and  shape 
traveling  beyond  the  speed  stated  meet  air  resist- 
ance in  proportion  to  the  square  of  their  velocities. 
This  immensely  rapid  increase  of  air  pressure 
against  the  light,  swift  bullet  causes  it  to  slow  up 
quickly,  and  by  the  time  it  has  covered  any  con- 


200  THE  GUN  BOOK 

siderable  distance  its  energy,  expanded  in  fighting 
air,  is  so  low  that  it  cannot  hit  hard.  Its  flight 
is  also  so  greatly  disturbed  in  the  aerial  contest 
that  it  becomes  wild  and  inaccurate.  For  these 
reasons  the  rifleman  preferred  to  stick  to  his 
heavy  bullet,  slow-moving,  but  with  great  mo- 
mentum stored  up  in  it  to  carry  it  high  but  truly. 
For  the  missile  with  high  trajectory,  it  must  be 
remembered,  is  not  necessarily  an  inaccurate  one ; 
its  high  curve  only  hampers  marksmanship  in  re- 
quiring more  allowance  for  wind,  and  greater  ex- 
actness in  the  estimation  of  distance.  It  was 
therefore  better  to  accept  these  disadvantages 
than  to  adopt  the  weak-hitting,  wild-flying,  light 
missile,  no  matter  how  much  faster  it  could  be 
propelled, 

It  will  be  well,  perhaps,  in  this  place  to  explain 
why  in  the  foregoing  paragraph  care  was  taken 
to  specify  1,350  feet  per  second  as  the  minimum 
velocity  of  the  supposed  bullets.  This  was  be- 
cause air  pressures  do  not  increase  regularly  with 
the  speed  of  the  bullet.  In  velocities  from  one 
foot  to  100  feet  per  second  the  air  pressure  in- 
creases as  the  square  of  the  velocity  of  the  mis- 
sile; from  100  to  1,100  feet  per  second  the  pres- 
sure increases  so  fast  that  the  figures  represent- 
ing the  velocity  must  be  multiplied  by  themselves 


TRAJECTORIES  AND  SMALL  BORES     201 

six  times  to  give  the  resistance.  From  1,100  to 
1,350  feet  per  second  the  resistance  dwindles  to 
about  the  cube  of  the  velocity;  while  from  1,350 
feet  and  higher  the  proportion  returns  again  to 
the  first  ratio  given,  that  is,  the  square  of  the 
velocity.  These  figures  are,  of  course,  not  exact, 
for  the  varying  pressures  blend  gradually  from 
one  stage  to  the  other,  there  being  no  known  rule 
for  calculating  the  changes  accurately.  This 
much,  however,  is  certain — that  where  weight, 
shape,  diameter,  and  speed  remain  the  same,  the 
bullet  is  retarded  inversely  as  the  weight.  The 
heavier  the  bullet,  therefore,  all  the  other  condi- 
tions continuing  the  same,  the  less  the  proportion- 
ate air  pressure  against  it  and  the  further  and 
straighter  it  will  travel. 

Returning  now  to  the  problem  of  gaining  lower 
trajectory,  we  find  that  the  only  recourse  remain- 
ing was  to  lessen  air  pressure  by  reducing  the 
diameter  of  the  bullet,  and  in  that  way  give  it  the 
necessary  long-continued  speed,  accompanied  with 
accuracy  if  possible.  But  here  also  there  were 
grave  obstacles  to  be  overcome.  One  peculiarity 
of  spinning  bodies  not  yet  mentioned  is  that,  as 
the  diameter  is  decreased,  the  speed  of  rotation 
must  be  increased  to  give  stability.  The  thinner 
bullet,  then,  would  require  a  much  faster  spin  than 


THE  GUN  BOOK 


the  thicker  one,  if  it  were  to  be  made  fly  accu- 
rately. How  true  this  is  you  may  prove  to  your- 
self by  taking  two  tops  of  the  same  material,  one 
thick  and  one  thin,  and  spinning  them  side  by 
side.  If  the  speeds  given  them  are  anywhere  near 
the  same  the  broader  toy  will  stand  up  much  more 


FIG.  54. — Of  these  two  tops,  A  and  B,  the  former  is  the  thicker 
of  the  two.  If  both  be  spun  at  the  same  speed,  A  will  stand 
up  longer  than  B.  Similarly  the  bullet  with  the  greater 
diameter  will  remain  point  foremost  longer  than  the  thinner 
and  when  both  are  rotating  at  the  same  speed,  length  and 
material  being  alike. 

steadily  and  longer  than  the  other.  This  differ- 
ence is  due  to  the  increase  in  circumference, 
because  the  greater  distance  traveled  by  the  heavy 
outer  edge  in  making  a  revolution  gives  greater 
leverage.  Similarly,  the  bullet  half  an  inch  in 
diameter  will  keep  its  rotating  motion  and  remain 
point  foremost  longer  than  one  only  a  third  of  an 
inch  across,  when  both  are  turning  at  the  same 
speed. 
For  many  years  there  was  in  use  a  type  of  rifle 


TRAJECTORIES  AND  SMALL  BORES     203 

called  the  "express,"  in  which  a  heavy  charge  of 
powder  propelled  a  small  bullet,  giving  it  great 
speed  and  penetration.  But  the  "express"  gave 
accuracy  only  at  short  distances,  because  the  pro- 
jectile spun  so  slowly  that  the  force  of  rotation 
held  it  true  for  but  a  brief  portion  of  its  full 
range.  Many  sportsmen,  however,  willingly  ac- 
cepted the  shortcoming  and  used  the  weapon  on 
account  of  its  low  trajectory. 

There  was  no  difficulty  in  making  the  rifle 
barrel  as  small  as  desired,  nor  in  manufacturing 
projectiles  thin  enough  to  fit;  the  difficulty  was  to 
compel  the  missile  to  spin  fast  enough  to  stay 
straight  in  flight.  To  accomplish  this,  of  course, 
the  twist  of  the  rifling  had  to  be  made  sharper. 
When  this  was  done,  however,  the  lead  refused  to 
follow  the  spiral  channels,  simply  tearing  its  way 
through  the  barrel,  spinning  little  or  none ;  when 
the  grooves  were  made  deeper  they  promptly 
filled  up  with  lead  from  the  missile's  sides,  leav- 
ing the  gun  practically  a  smooth-bore.  The  old, 
thin  sugar-loaf  bullet  had  been  used  with  what 
was  called  the  "accelerating  twist"  rifling;  that 
is,  the  grooves  began  with  a  slow  turn  at  the 
breech,  increasing  the  rotation  as  the  muzzle  was 
approached.  By  this  means  the  bullet  started 
revolving  slowly,  but  gained  rotation  rapidly  as 


204  THE  GUN  BOOK 

it  passed  down  the  barrel.  For  this  type  of  mis- 
sile such  a  system  of  grooving  was  admirable, 
and  to  it  the  sugar-loaf  owed  much  of  its  merit. 
But  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  sugar-loaf 
touched  the  barrel  only  at  its  extreme  base  and 
that  the  grooves  cut  into  its  surface  were  there- 
fore quite  short.  When  this  system  of  rifling  was 
tried  with  cylindrical  bullets  the  results  were  very 
disappointing,  for  they  pressed  against  the  barrel 
throughout  their  length ;  and  the  result  was  much 
like  screwing  a  bolt  through  a  nut  with  threads 
of  varying  twist.  The  lead  was  torn,  the  surface 
of  the  bullet  was  injured,  and  poor  shooting  re- 
sulted. The  idea  of  using  the  accelerating  twist 
to  gain  greater  spin  for  the  thin,  cylindrical  bullet 
was,  therefore,  after  long  trial  finally  abandoned, 
and  rifling  uniform  from  breech  to  muzzle  ad- 
hered to. 

The  next  expedient  tried  to  gain  rotation  for 
the  bullet  of  smaller  caliber  was  the  hardening 
of  the  missile,  to  give  it  a  firmer  grip  on  the 
rifling.  Tin,  zinc,  antimony,  and  other  alloys 
mixed  in  small  quantities  with  the  lead,  served  to 
harden  it  substantially.  With  such  bullets  it  was 
found  that  sharper  twists  in  the  rifling  were  per- 
missible. In  consequence,  about  1885,  rifle  bores 
began  to  decrease  from  .50  and  .45  caliber  to  .44, 


TRAJECTORIES  AND  SMALL  BORES     205 

.40,  and  .38.  The  bullet's  total  weight  was  re- 
duced somewhat,  but  its  length  generally  in- 
creased. The  slender  bullet  hardened  to  make  it 

/ 

follow  the  sharper  rifle  grooves,  and  therefore 
spinning  fast  from  sharper-turning  spirals  in  the 
barrel,  gave  increased  range  and  accuracy,  as  well 
as  a  somewhat  lower  trajectory.  These  results 
were  due  less  to  the  increase  in  the  velocity  with 
which  it  left  the  rifle  barrel  than  to  the  fact  that 
its  smaller  diameter  displaced  less  air,  thus  en- 
abling it  to  retain  its  forward  speed  for  a  longer 
period. 

These  alloyed  bullets,  however,  when  hardened 
very  much  proved  defective  because  the  lead,  thus 
robbed  of  its  semi-plastic  quality,  became  too 
brittle  to  serve  as  efficient  missiles.  The  author 
has  seen  an  elk  run  a  quarter  of  a  mile  with  three 
direct  hits  behind  its  shoulder  from  such  bullets, 
examination  showing  that  the  thin  hard  metal  had 
crumbled  to  bits  on  impact,  leaving  wounds  com- 
paratively superficial.  Experiences  like  this 
quickly  warned  gun  makers  that  there  were  limits 
to  their  plan  of  making  a  successful  thin  bullet 
by  hardening  the  material  of  which  it  was  com- 
posed. Yet  the  alloyed  bullet,  when  properly 
manufactured,  gained  much  popularity  in  its  day. 

As  the  bullet  became  thinner  the  cartridge  shell 


206  THE  GUN  BOOK 

that  went  with  it  also  had  to  undergo  a  change. 
The  longer  shell  necessary  to  hold  the  charge 
when  the  diameter  was  decreased  was  found  to 
'have  a  serious  drawback  in  that  the  igniting  fire, 
being  applied  at  the  extreme  base  of  the  shell,  did 
not  cause  the  foremost  powder  grains  to  burn 
until  after  the  bullet  had  left  the  gun.  This  was 
a  demonstration  of  the  von  Dreyse  theory,  though 
it  really  cut  very  little  figure  in  the  small  charges 
his  needle  gun  employed.  The  difficulty  was  over- 
come after  a  while  by  making  the  rear  part  of 
the  shell  larger  than  the  front,  thereby  keeping 
the  powder  near  the  primer  and  causing  the  shell 
to  take  the  shape  now  commonly  called  "bottle- 
necked." 

In  the  old  muzzle-loading  rifles  shooting  spher- 
ical balls  it  was  not  uncommon  to  have  the  rifling 
so  gradual  in  twist  as  to  cause  the  bullet  to  make 
a  single  turn  in  eight  feet.  In  the  early  breech-, 
loaders  one  turn  in  three  feet  was  about  the  aver- 
age, but  with  the  coming  of  the  smaller  calibers! 
made  possible  by  hardening  the  bullets  the  speed 
of  rotation  increased  to  a  turn  in  eighteen  or 
twenty  inches. 

There  must  be  noted  here  the  fact  that,  as  the<! 
diameter  of  the  rifle  bore  decreases,  the  spirals 
slope  more  gradually;  so  that  when  we  say  that 


TRAJECTORIES  AND  SMALL  BORES     207 

certain  rifling  makes  a  turn  in  so  many  inches, 
the  expression  is  very  indefinite.  The  only  ex- 
plicit way  to  specify  the  rapidity  of  rotation  is  to 
say  that  a  turn  is  made  in  so  many  calibers.  For 


FIG.  55. — SECTIONAL  VIEW  OF  RIFLE  BARRELS 
Showing  different  types  of  rifling  and  different  slopes  of  twists. 

instance,  if  the  diameter  of  the  bore  is  half  an 
inch  and  one  turn  is  made  iix  thirty-six  inches, 
our  meaning  is  clear  when  we  multiply  thirty- 
six  by  two  and  say  the  rifling  is  one  turn  in 
seventy-two  calibers.  If  the  diameter  of  the  bore 
were  only  one-third  of  an  inch  the  rifling  would 
be  one  turn  in  one  hundred  and  eight  calibers. 
By  merely  saying  that  one  turn  is  made  in 


208  THE  GUN  BOOK 

thirty-six  inches  this  wide  distinction  would  pass 
unnoticed. 

This  longer  slope  of  the  rifling  in  small  gun 
barrels  aid  greatly  in  causing  the  bullet  to  keep 
to  the  spiral  channels,  without  scraping  past 
them.  While  the  hardening  of  the  bullet  also 
helped  substantially  to  impart  a  rapid  twist,  these 
influences  were  far  too  limited  to  give  spin  enough 
for  the  small  caliber  and  low  trajectories  which 
riflemen  demanded  and  at  last  attained.  The 
nearer  the  rifle  bullet  approaches  the  sphere  in 
shape,  the  less  spin  is  necessary  to  keep  it  on  its 
course;  and  the  more  its  form  departs  from  that 
standard ;  that  is,  by  being  made  longer,  the  more 
violent  are  the  forces  that  tend  to  carry  it  astray. 
A  certain  amount  of  lead  is  always  necessary  to 
give  high  momentum,  and  as  the  diameter  of  the 
bullet  is  decreased  its  length  must  be  increased. 
How  the  lengthened  missile  battles  its  way 
through  the  air  from  gun  to  target  is  the  inter- 
esting subject  of  the  next  chapter. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE  PRANKS  OF  THE  LONG-POINTED 
BULLET 

IF  you  were  asked  why  the  Indian  of  long  ago 
put  a  stone  tip  on  his  arrow,  your  answer  proba- 
bly would  be  that  the  sharp  stone  was  intended 
to  cut  a  passage  for  the  wooden  stick  as  it  struck 
his  enemy,  or  the  deer  at  which  he  aimed.  This 
would  be  partly  correct,  but  much  less  than  the 
whole  truth.  The  function  of  the  arrowhead  was 
first  of  all  to  keep  the  shaft  point  forward  in  its 
flight,  and  since  it  must  be  used  at  all,  it  might 
as  well  be  sharp.  The  knife-edged  steel  points 
on  the  arrow  used  by  archers  today  are  there  for 
the  same  primary  purpose;  that  is,  to  place  the 
greatest  weight  on  the  front  end,  and  only  sec- 
ondarily to  cut  the  target. 

When  our  American  Indians  hunted  the  buffalo 
on  horseback  they  used  bows  and  arrows  in 
preference  to  muzzle-loading  guns,  because  of  the 
difficulty  of  loading  powder  and  ball  while  in  full 
career.  Such  loading  not  only  was  hard  to  per- 

209 


210  THE  GUN  BOOK 

form  but  hazardous  as  well;  for  when  the  bullet 
was  not  rammed  down  closely  upon  the  powder 
the  gun  would  bulge  or  burst,  a  very  common  oc- 
currence with  all  muzzle-loaders.  Indeed  the  ad- 
vantages of  bow  and  arrow  were  so  great  that 
our  own  pioneers  often  chose  them  instead  of  the 
gun  for  "running"  buffalo,  as  hunting  these  ani- 
mals on  horseback  was  called.  The  bow-armed 
hunter  would  spur  his  horse  up  alongside  one  of 
the  huge  beasts,  aim  his  arrow  at  a  spot  between 
two  ribs  to  avoid  striking  a  bone,  and  send  the 
missile  into  the  vitals  of  the  victim. 

Now,  there  was  a  peculiarity  about  these  ar- 
rows intended  to  be  shot  with  the  point  almost 
touching  the  hide  of  the  quarry:  they  were  not 
tipped  with  either  stone  or  steel.  The  wooden 
point  was  sharp,  hardened  by  fire ;  and,  when  no 
bone  intervened,  such  an  arrow  has  been  known 
to  pass  clear  through  the  body  of  a  buffalo.  This 
goes  to  show  that  the  Indian  knew  his  stone- 
tipped  arrow  to  be  best  for  long  shots ;  while  for 
work  close  up,  where  mere  penetration  was 
needed,  the  plain,  lance-like  shaft  was  best.  In, 
fact,  in  the  days  before  the  Indians  had  horses 
to  carry  them  alongside  the  beasts,  we  know  that 
they  killed  few  buffalo  except  by  stampeding  a 
herd  over  a  cliff  to  its  own  destruction,  or  into 


PRANKS  OF  LONG-POINTED  BULLET 

water,  when  they  could  be  surrounded  and  a  few 
drowned.  The  stone-tipped  arrow,  shot  from  a 
distance,  would  fly  truly,  but  did  not,  on  reaching 
its  mark,  have  the  penetrating  power  to  pierce 
the  bodies  of  such  ponderous  animals. 

What  has  all  this  to  do  with  the  subject  of  rifle 
bullets  ?  you  may  ask.  Let  us  see.  The  long,  thin, 
pointed  bullet  is  often  spoken  of  as  arrow-like, 
but  this  is  misleading,  unless  we  refer  to  the 
untipped  shaft  used  by  the  mounted  Indian  in 
his  buffalo  hunting.  This  missile  and  the  long 
bullet  are  each  thin  and  sharp,  but,  unlike  the 
tipped  arrow,  are  lightest  in  front.  The  Indian 
used  his  ill-balanced  projectile  only  at  the  closest 
ranges,  and  never  devised  means  to  discharge  it 
accurately  to  a  distance.  The  modern  rifleman, 
however,  demands  that  his  long,  sharp  bullet  shall 
fly  far  and  straight.  The  rifling  in  his  gun  barrel 
has  in  part  solved  the  problem  for  him,  but  to 
understand  just  how  this  partial  success  has  been 
attained,  let  us  analyze  a  little  more  closely  than 
we  have  yet  done  the  difficulties  he  had  to  sur- 
mount. 

To  get  at  the  bottom  of  the  matter  promptly 
and  easily,  make  for  yourself  a  bow  and  two 
arrows.  Those  of  the  simplest  character  will  suf- 
fice. On  the  point  of  one  arrow  wrap  some  wire 


THE  GUN  BOOK 

to  give  weight  there,  and  then  shoot  it.  It  will 
fly  point  forward,  as  truly  and  steadily  as  if  it 
were  a  living,  intelligent  thing,  the  point  reaching 
the  ground  first,  while  the  shaft  has  described  a 
graceful  curve. 

After  this  satisfactory  performance  take  a  sec- 
ond arrow  and  wrap  the  weighting  wire  around 


FIG.  56. — Of  the  two  arrows  here  shown,  a  is  weighted  at  the  tip 
and  flies  straight  to  the  mark,  6  is  weighted  at  the  butt  and 
gyrates  in  its  flight. 

the  butt  end,  first  cutting  a  groove  in  the  wood 
to  contain  the  metal,  and  so  give  the  stick  a 
smoother  surface.  Then  shoot  this  arrow  and 
note  the  difference  in  the  result.  It  has  not  gone 
many  feet  until  its  point  has  turned  upward,  the 
whole  shaft  has  veered  to  one  side  and  struck 
the  ground  butt  end  first,  giving  altogether  a 
miserable  exhibition.  The  light  point  has  been 
supported  by  the  air  more  effectually  than  the 
heavy  rear;  and  the  latter,  having  the  greater 
momentum  on  account  of  its  greater  weight 


PRANKS  OF  LONG-POINTED  BULLET 

has  tried  to  get  to  the  front  to  drag  the 
arrow  on,  but  in  so  doing  has  turned  the  missile 
broadside  to  the  Xvind  and  spoiled  the  shot.  When 
a  light  body  and  a  heavy  one  of  equivalent  size 
are  sent  forward  at  the  same  speed,  through  the 
air,  the  heavy  one  will  pass  the  lighter  one,  be- 
cause both  meet  the  same  air  resistance,  but  the 
heavier  has  the  more  power  stored  up  in  it.  So 
when  a  stick  light  at  one  end,  but  weighted  at  the 
other,  tries  to  proceed  sideways,  the  heavy  end 
will  try  to  take  the  lead.  The  only  possible  way 
to  drive  such  a  missile  forward  truly  is  to  compel 
the  heavy  butt  to  remain  exactly  at  the  rear ;  but 
this  is  practically  unattainable,  because  the  air 
buoys  up  the  light  point  more  than  the  heavy  butt, 
and  the  slant  thus  produced  allows  the  rear  to 
swing  under  and  forward,  with  disastrous  results. 
It  is  the  weighted  end  that  not  only  contains  the 
greater  propelling  power,  but  is  less  retarded  by 
the  resisting  air;  hence  by  putting  the  weight  at 
the  rear  we  put  the  power  in  exactly  the  wrong 
place. 

The  long,  pointed  bullet  is  like  the  second  ar- 
row; it  is  lightest  at  its  point,  has  the  least  power 
stored  up  there,  and  receives  at  that  end  the 
greatest  support  from  the  air.  In  order  that  we 
may  obtain  a  clear  understanding  of  this  impor- 


THE  GUN  BOOK 

tant  fact — that  the  butt  end  of  the  bullet  tends 
to  fall  faster  than  the  point — let  us  use  the  accom- 
panying diagram. 

For  our  purposes  here  we  may  consider  our 
bullet  made  up  of  two  parts,  the  butt  a  cylinder 
and  the  tip  a  cone,  the  two  having  equal  bases 
and  equal  altitudes.  Let  us  suppose  our  bullet 


FIG.  57. — DIAGRAM  OF  A  POINTED  BULLET 

cut  into  two  lengthwise  halves.  The  figure,  then, 
shows  the  flat  side  of  one  of  these  halves,  and 
is  approximately  made  up  of  a  rectangle  and  a 
triangle,  with  equal  bases  and  equal  altitudes. 
This  flat  surface  measures  the  amount  of  air 
pressure  resisting  the  bullet  when  it  is  falling 
horizontally.  In  order  to  simplify  the  matter 
let  us  give  some  simple  dimensions  to  our  pro- 
jectile, calling  the  radius  of  its  base  2  inches 
and  its  length  12  inches.  In  our  diagram,  then, 
we  have  a  rectangle  ABEF  with  an  area  of  24 
square  inches,  which  measures  the  amount  of  up- 
ward air  pressure  on  the  butt  of  the  bullet ;  while 


PRANKS  OF  LONG-POINTED  BULLET      215 

the  triangle  EFC  has  an  area  of  12  square  inches, 
showing  that  the  amount  of  upward  pressure  on 
the  tip  is  half  that  on  the  butt.  Now,  the  force 
pulling  the  two  parts  down  will  be  in  proportion 
to  their  volumes.  The  volume  of  a  cylinder  is 
equivalent  to  the  product  of  its  base  and  its  alti- 


FIG.  58. — Arrows  indicate  the  changing  directions  from  which  air 
pressure  comes  against  the  bullet. 

tude,  while  the  volume  of  a  cone  is  only  one-third 
of  the  product  of  its  base  and  altitude.  Hence 
the  pull  on  the  butt  of  the  bullet  exerted  by  the 
force  of  gravity  is  three  times  as  great  as  that 
on  the  conical  tip;  while  the  amount  of  air 
pressure  holding  it  up  is  only  twice  that  on  the 
tip.  Hence  the  butt  end  of  the  projectile  tends 
to  fall  faster  than  the  lighter  point,  and  as  soon 
as  it  leaves  the  gun  the  bullet  tries  to  leave  its 
horizontal  position.  Herein  we  find  one  of  the 
important  demands  for  the  supporting  force  of 


216  THE  GUN  BOOK 

rapid  rotation  to  keep  the  pointed  cylinder 
straight. 

The  difference  in  the  support  which  the  two 
ends  of  the  projectile  receive  from  the  air,  how- 
ever, is  only  one  of  the  factors  which  intervene 
to  turn  the  modern  bullet  from  its  course.  A 
glance  at  Fig.  58  will  reveal  the  effect  of  the 
air  which  lies  in  the  missile's  course  as  it  passes 
forward  with  its  point  tilted  upward,  first,  by 
reason  of  the  greater  buoyancy  of  the  point,  and 
second,  because  the  bullet,  to  carry  any  distance, 
must  be  directed  slightly  upward  as  it  leaves  the 
muzzle. 

An  object  once  set  in  motion  will  proceed  to 
infinity  in  its  original  direction  unless  obstructed 
or  deflected.  A  bullet  fired  as  in  Fig.  59,  there- 
fore, would  continue  along  the  line  A-B  were  it 
not  for  the  air  it  must  force  aside,  and  for  the 
pull  of  gravity  from  below.  The  action  of  these 
two  influences,  the  one  a  yielding  obstacle,  the 
other  a  mere  force,  compels  the  bullet  to  leave 
the  line  A-B  and  take  instead  the  line  A-C.  This 
line  is  curved,  departing  more  and  more  rapidly 
from  A-B,  because  gravity,  as  we  have  seen,  pulls 
the  bullet  toward  the  earth  faster  and  faster  the 
longer  its  force  is  applied.  The  bullet,  therefore, 
begins  its  flight  with  its  point  heading  squarely 


PRANKS  OF  LONG-POINTED  BULLET     217 

into  the  air  along  the  line  A-B,  but  immediately 
leaves  that  line  to  follow  the  curve  A-C.  These 
two  positions  of  the  bullet  are  shown  in  the  cut, 
which  also  illustrates  how  the  air  resistance  con- 
stantly changes  in  its  action  against  the  'missile. 
As  the  point  receives  more  support  from  the  air 


„  -  "Air  resistance  after  buffet  f)B9 
„  -  '  proceeded  and  before  rotational  force  ha* 

Air  resistance  \       oyain. 

offer  rotational  force 
nas  puUed point  down 

Air  re. 

££fer_f>e!Di — 

Vef  end  before  /Is 
point  ispul/eddo 
by  rotational  fort 

FIG.  59. — This  illustration  shows  how  the  bullet  starts  off  toward 
B  with  the  air  pressing  squarely  against  its  point;  and  how 
after  some  progress  has  been  made  along  the  curve  A-C, 
the  air  resistance  meets  the  bullet  from  below;  rotational 
force  then  pulls  the  point  down  as  indicated.  But  further 
along  the  trajectory  curve  the  air  pressure  again  comes  from 
below,  necessitating  another  rotational  pull  downward.  This 
process  really  begins  shortly  after  the  projectile  leaves  the 
muzzle  and  is  repeated  again  and  again  as  long  as  the  flight 
continues,  or  as  long  as  rotational  force  is  equal  to  its  task. 

than  the  butt,  and  is  further  forced  upward  by 
the  air  pressure  against  the  lower  side  of  the 
projectile,  the  whole  body  would  promptly  turn  a 
somersault  unless  some  force  prevented.  To 
prevent  this  catastrophe  is  the  duty  of  the  spin 
imparted  by  the  rifle  grooves. 

Let  us  analyze  briefly  the  contortions  of  the 


218  THE  GUN  BOOK 

poor  bewildered  bullet  in  its  efforts  to  obey  the 
commands  of  these  three  contending  masters — 
gravity,  air  resistance,  and  rotational  force.  The 
missile  starts  valiantly  toward  B  up  in  the  sky, 
but  ends  its  flight  ignominiously  on  the  ground 
at  C.  What  has  happened  to  the  unoffending  bit 
of  metal  in  the  meantime,  and  how  has  it  com- 
ported itself  as  it  strives  to  obey  the  contradictory 
commands?  The  wh'ole  story  of  its  tribulations 
cannot  be  told,  for  we  still  have  much  to  learn 
upon  the  subject ;  some  of  the  facts,  however,  are 
in  our  possession. 

With  air  and  gravity  eliminated  the  bullet 
would  fly  truly  to  the  target  C  in  a  straight  line 
without  requiring  spin.  But  having  these  two 
factors  to  contend  with,  we  must  aim  our  pro- 
jectile at  B  in  order  to  have  it  reach  C.  No 
amount  of  spin  will  compel  the  missile  to  keep 
its  point  aimed  directly  at  B  during  its  journey 
to  C,  because  the  resistance  of  the  air  keeps  com- 
ing more  strongly  from  below  as  the  different 
positions  are  reached  in  the  trajectory  curve,  and 
the  further  the  long  body  is  tipped  upward  by 
this  pressure,  the  more  surface  is  presented  to 
the  wind  and  progress  thereby  impeded.  Air  re- 
sistance is  least  when  the  projectile  is  meeting 
the  air  exactly  point  on,  and  this  is  the  position 


PRANKS  OF  LONG-POINTED  BULLET   219 

which  the  rotational  force  assists  the  missile  to 
keep,  the  strong  desire  of  this  force  being  to 
bring  the  projectile  into  the  line  of  least  resist- 
ance and  to  keep  it  there.  So  that  the  more  spin 
we  impart  to  our  bullet  the  more  surely  will  its 
point  and  body  stay  in,  or  nearly  in,  the  trajectory 
curve. 

Our  bullet  is,  we  know,  aimed  upward  at  the 
beginning  of  a  long  flight;  under  normal  condi- 
tions and  within  reasonable  range  the  missile  will 
hit  its  target  almost  exactly  point  first;  if  a 
screen  be  set  up  just  past  the  middle  of  the  flight, 
the  bullet  will  pass  through  it  in  a  horizontal 
direction.  Thus  we  are  assured  of  the  truth  of 
our  theory  that  the  projectile,  if  spinning  fast, 
is  never  very  far  from  being  in  line  with  the 
curve  of  trajectory. 

In  tracing  the  holes  made  by  the  bullet  in  pass- 
ing through  rows  of  screens,  and  in  experiments 
with  a  spinning  projectile  so  hinged  as  to  permit 
free  movement  while  a  blast  of  air  is  directed 
against  its  point  from  below,  different  angles  of 
impact  of  the  air  being  used,  we  learn  more  about 
the  queer  gyrations  of  a  secondary  nature  de- 
scribed during  the  journey  along  the  main  trajec- 
tory curve. 

These  minor  antics  of  the  projectile  are  pro- 


220  THE  GUN  BOOK 

duced  by  the  contest  which,  during  the  flight,  goes 
on  among  the  forces  of  rotation,  gravity,  and  air 
resistance.  Let  us  dismiss  the  element  of  gravity 
now  by  merely  calling  attention  to  its  influence 
in  pulling  the  bullet  bodily  down  from  the  line 
A-B  to  the  curve  A-C.  This  leaves  the  other 
two  forces  to  fight  it  out  between  themselves. 
When  the  bullet's  point 'is  pressed  upward  by 
the  air  at  the  beginning  of  the  flight  the  stabilizing 
force  of  rotation  is  not  able  to  pull  it  down  in- 
stantly, but  takes  a  little  time  to  do  the  work; 
the  result  is  that  the  point  rises  slightly  and  is 
then  somewhat  slowly  depressed;  the  point  has 
not  moved  either  straight  upward  or  straight 
downward ;  but  in  obedience  to  the  gradual  yield- 
ing of  one  force  to  the  other  the  point  has  moved 
first  to  th6  right  (if  the  bullet  is  spinning  to  the 
right)  and  then  downward.  In  the  meantime  the 
bullet  has  passed  forward  a  considerable  dis- 
tance in  its  flight,  so  that  its  point  has  executed 
a  long  spiral-like  movement,  as  viewed  from  the 
rear.  During  this  movement,  too,  the  left-hand 
side  of  the  projectile  is  partly  exposed  to  the 
rushing  air,  which  causes  the  whole  bullet  to  be 
pushed  bodily  to  the  right ;  then  it  is  forced  bodily 
downward  as  the  point  dips  and  the  air  presses 
against  the  upper  side.  The  body  of  the  pro- 


PRANKS  OF  LONG-POINTED  BULLET 

jectile,  therefore,  in  striving  to  follow  directly 
behind  its  point  and  so  shield  itself  from  undue 
air  resistance,  also  follows  a  spiral-like  course. 
These  are  probably  not  complete  spirals  passing 
all  the  way  around  the  curve  of  trajectory,  how- 
ever, for  they  seem  to  be  interrupted  midway  by 


FIG.  60. — When  a  spinning  top  is  pushed  gently  on  one  side  it 
will  begin  to  wabble  or  "  precess,"  the  upper  part  describing 
a  wide  curve  in  the  direction  in  which  it  is  spinning.  When 
the  pointed  bullet  in  following  its  curved  course  is  met 
with  changing  air  pressure  coming  from  below  at  different 
angles,  it  also  is  forced  to  wabble  or  "  precess "  in  the 
direction  in  which  it  spins. 


still  another  variable  element,  to  be  considered 
presently. 

To  understand  more  clearly  how  the  point  of 
the  projectile  follows  the  curve  to  the  right  and 
then  downward,  the  body  of  the  object  following 
in  approximately  the  same  course,  let  us  get  our 
top  again  and  set  it  spinning.  When  it  is  in 
motion  and  standing  steadily,  let  some  one  blow 
his  breath  hard  against  it  on  one  side.  Straight- 
way the  toy  will  begin  to  wabble,  its  upper  end 


222  THE  GUN  BOOK 

describing  long  curves  in  the  direction  of  its  spin. 
The  air  pressure  during  the  blowing  is  greater 
upon  one  side  than  upon  the  other,  partly  over- 
coming the  force  of  rotation  which  has  been  keep- 
ing the  top  upright  on  its  point,  and  which  imme- 
diately begins  to  pull  the  spinning  body  back  into 
the  former  position.  The  effort  so  exerted  acting 
not  instantly,  but  requiring  time,  causes  the  spiral 
curve  followed  by  the  upper  end. 

The  reason  why  the  top  stands  upright  when 
rotating  rapidly,  and  assumes  that  position  even 
though  set  spinning  at  an  angle,  is  because  of  the 
friction  upon  its  point  as  it  rests  upon  the  floor. 
When  the  top  is  tilted  to  one  side  this  friction 
is  increased  on  one  side  of  the  axis,  offering  more 
resistance  there,  and  the  toy  in  its  gyrations  grad- 
ually "feels"  its  way  into  the  upright  position, 
in  which  the  point  not  only  meets  the  least  resist- 
ance, but  finds  that  resistance  evenly  distributed. 
For  the  same  reasons  the  projected  bullet,  spin- 
ning rapidly,  "feels"  for  the  position  which  pro- 
duces the  least  and  best  distributed  air  resistance 
against  its  body.  As  the  air  resistance  is 
constantly  changing  its  direction  against  the 
projectile  pursuing  its  trajectory  curve,  which 
first  passes  upward,  then  horizontally,  ending  in 
a  downward  direction,  the  secondary  curves  de- 


PRANKS  OF  LONG-POINTED  BULLET 

scribed  by  the  missile  are  also  necessarily  changed 
from  time  to  time  during  the  flight.  The  pro- 
jectile's point  rises  and  passes  to  the  right  and 
then  points  downward;  but  as  the  body  pro- 
gresses, the  air  once  more  presses  harder  from 
below,  forcing  the  point  up;  again  it  passes 
to  the  right  and  downward,  as  the  two  contending 
forces  in  turn  gain  control. 

This  alternation  of  these  forces  controlling  the 
point  of  the  projectile,  while  comparatively  slow, 
is  yet  in  the  ordinary  case  too  frequent  to  permit 
the  point  to  perform  a  complete  spiral.  The  re- 
sult is  that  when  the  point  has  passed  upward 
and  to  the  right,  then  downward  and  perhaps 
partly  to  the  left,  the  air  pressure  lifts  it  again 
rather  suddenly,  from  which  position  the  rota- 
tional force  comes  again  to  the  rescue  and  by  its 
resistance  to  this  upward  movement  causes  the 
point  to  veer  off  once  more  to  the  right. 

The  partial  spirals  so  described  are  short  and 
narrow  in  the  early  part  of  the  bullet's  journey, 
for  the  direction  of  the  air  resistance  changes 
oftener  on  account  of  the  great  speed  of  the 
missile,  the  rotational  force  being  called  upon 
more  frequently  to  correct  the  position.  As  the 
rate  of  rotation  falls  off,  its  force  is  weakened 
and  requires  a  longer  time  to  perform  its  work; 


THE  GUN  BOOK 

at  the  same  time  the  bullet  is  slowing  up  in  its 
forward  progress,  lessening  the  air  resistance 
somewhat,  but  the  latter  is  still  strong  enough  to 
exert  increasing  superiority  over  the  force  of 
rotation,  for  we  must  remember  the  rule  laid 
down  in  Chapter  XIII,  that  the  air  resistance  does 
not  decrease  directly  in  proportion  to  the  bullet's 
velocity.  The  result,  therefore,  is  that  as  the 
flight  proceeds,  air  resistance  comes  more  into 
control,  producing  curves  each  wider  and  longer 
than  the  one  preceding. 

The  tortuous  pathway  thus  followed  by  the 
pointed  bullet  is  difficult  to  picture  by  lines  drawn 
upon  paper,  but  some  idea  of  its  appearance  may 
be  gained  from  an  examination  of  Figs.  61  and 
62,  which  give  it  approximately. 

The  longer  the  bullet  the  more  surface  its  body 
will  offer  to  the  resisting  air  as  its  point  veers 
from  one  position  to  another,  and  the  thinner  the 
missile  the  greater  will  be  the  surface  thus  ex- 
posed in  proportion  to  its  volume.  Under  these 
circumstances  the  deflection  caused  by  the  air  will 
be  greater  than  in  the  case  of  a  bullet  short  and 
broad.  In  shooting  against  a  heavy  wind  all  pro- 
jectiles will  make  wider  curves  than  if  the  air 
were  calm;  with  a  following  wind  the  air  pressure 
is  of  course  decreased,  giving  curves  longer  and 


PRANKS  OF  LONG-POINTED  BULLET 

narrower.  Then  again,  if  the  missile  be  imper- 
fect, either  by  being  ill-balanced  or  having  its 
surface  so  marred  as  to  create  air  friction,  these 


FIG.  61. — Path  described  by  bullet  if  flight  is  viewed  from  above. 
Exaggerated  to  show  how  point  diverges  to  the  right  in 
repeated  curves  and  how  it  comes  back  to  trajectory  through 
rotational  force. 


disturbances  to  its  flight  are  increased.  A  bullet 
bruised  or  lopsided  will  sometimes  describe 
curves  of  two  feet  or  more  from  the  trajectory 
within  a  hundred  yards ;  while  a  perfect  bullet  of 
proper  form,  with  enough  spin,  will  not  deviate 
more  than  an  inch  or  two  within  the  same  distance 


\*"fc-* 


FIG.  62. — Path  described  by  bullet  if  flight  is  viewed  from  one 
side.  Exaggerated  for  purpose  of  illustrating  dipping  and 
rising  action  of  point  of  projectile. 

when  aimed  over  a  long  course ;  however,  all  pro- 
jectiles show  marked  inaccuracy  during  a  long 
flight  because  of  increasing  width  of  their  sec- 
ondary curves. 

There  is  still  one  other  disturbing  factor  affect- 
ing the  flight  of  the  pointed  projectile  and  that 


226  THE  GUN  BOOK 

is  the  much  discussed  peculiarity  called  "drift," 
under  the  influence  of  which  the  bullet  is  carried 
sensibly  to  the  right  when  it  spins  in  that  direc- 
tion, and  to  the  left  when  the  rotation  is  reversed. 
The  simplest  explanation  of  drift  is  that  the  bullet 
in  traveling  to  a  distant  mark  is,  in  the  aggregate, 
pressed  upon  by  the  air  much  more  from  below 
than  from  above.  The  effect  of  this  is  similar 
to  what  we  see  when  a  spinning  top  drops  side- 
ways to  the  floor,  for  the  rotating  motion  causes 
the  whole  body  to  roll  in  the  direction  of  the  spin. 
The  upward-pressing  air  is  of  course  mild  in  its 
action  as  compared  with  the  action  of  the  floor 
upon  the  side  of  the  top,  but  it  is  not  unlikely 
that  this  conduct  of  air  and  bullet  helps  to  produce 
drift. 

The  chief  cause  of  drift,  however,  probably 
lies  in  the  fact  that  the  point  of  the  bullet,  when 
spun  to  the  right,  remains  for  a  longer  aggregate 
time  to  the  right-hand  side  of  the  trajectory  as  it 
rises,  and  passes  to  the  right  at  the  beginning  of 
each  separate  curve,  seldom  arriving  at  any  point 
very  far  to  the  left  of  the  trajectory.  (See  Fig. 
61.)  Given  left-hand  spin,  the  bullet's  point 
would  similarly  spend  most  of  its  time  on  the  left 
of  the  trajectory.  The  air  sweeping  past  the  pro- 
jectile so  moving  forward  at  a  slight  angle  would 


PRANKS  OF  LONG-POINTED  BULLET 

naturally  push  the  projectile  to  one  side  or  to 
the  other,  according  to  the  nature  of  the  angle 
presented ;  much  as  a  ship  is  steered  by  the  action 
of  the  water  acting  against  the  rudder  when  the 


FIG.  63. — In  seeking  the  cause  of  the  disturbance  called  drift, 
which  carries  the  rifle  bullet  to  right  or  left,  according  to 
its  rotation,  some  authorities  assert  that  the  air  buoying  the 
missile  from  below  causes  a  rolling  action,  much  like  that 
which  takes  place  when  a  rotating  body  is  dropped  on  the 
floor.  The  picture  illustrates  this  theory. 

latter  is  partly  turned  so  as  to  receive  the  impact 
partly  against  its  side. 

After  reading  this  chapter  it  will  be  easy  to 
understand  how  ruinous  to  good  shooting  was  the 
attempt  to  change  the  form  of  the  bullet  by  re- 
ducing its  diameter  and  increasing  its  length 
while  lacking  the  means  with  which  to  spin  it  fast. 
Ways  in  which  to  accomplish  this  much  desired 
end  of  rapid  rotation  were  finally  found  during 
the  ten  years  between  1895  and  1905,  as  will  be 
related  in  succeeding  chapters,  not  the  least  of 
the  means  employed  being  the  utilization  of  nitro- 
cellulose as  an  explosive. 


CHAPTER  XV 

SMOKELESS  POWDER 

WHEN  we  explode  a  charge  of  powder  in  a 
closed  vessel  tightly  sealed  and  strong  enough 
to  resist  the  resulting  gas  pressure  there  will  be 
no  sound  and  no  movement.  The  only  way  we 
can  tell  whether  the  explosive  has  burned  or  not 
is  by  the  heat  communicated  to  the  walls  of  the 
container.  The  pressure  will  be  there,  but  no 
work  will  be  done,  for  work  is  the  result  of  a 
force  acting  upon  a  body  through  a  distance. 
Mere  force  without  motion  accomplishes  nothing 
in  gunnery. 

It  follows,  too,  that  if  the  force  acts  upon  the 
body  through  a  distance  it  also  acts  during  a 
period  of  time;  for  in  order  to  move  an  object 
from  one  place  to  another,  time  is  always  re- 
quired, no  matter  how  short  or  how  long  the  dis- 
tance may  be,  or  how  quickly  the  journey  is  made. 
Therefore  the  time  during  which  the  force  is  made 
to  act  is  an  important  element  in  dealing  with 
moving  bodies.  Where  the  force  used  remains 


SMOKELESS  POWDER  229 

the  saiiie,  the  distance  covered  by  the  object  is 
increased  from  moment  to  moment,  until  before 
long  the  speed  gained  is  greatly  multiplied.  As 
an  instance  of  the  working  of  this  principle,  recall 
the  actions  of  the  bullet  described  in  a  previous 
chapter  when  dropped  to  the  ground  from  a 
height.  The  pull  of  gravity  on  the  missile  is  only 
moderate  in  strength  and  does  not  change,  yet  the 
bullet  fell  sixteen  feet  the  first  second,  forty-eight 
feet  the  next,  and  eighty  feet  the  third;  it  would 
have  gone  on  increasing  in  the  same  proportion 
if  the  fall  had  continued.  In  the  third  second  the 
speed  had  increased  fivefold,  although  the  power 
applied  at  any  moment  was  never  increased. 

Applying  these  facts  to  the  movement  of  a  pro- 
jectile from  a  gun,  it  is  plain  that  if  a  long  barrel 
be  used  and  a  steady  though  moderate  pressure 
be  created  to  act  against  the  base  of  the  missile 
during  the  whole  journey  from  the  breech  to  the 
muzzle,  it  will  start  slowly  but  gain  speed  rapidly 
during  every  inch  of  its  passage  through  the  tube. 
In  spite  of  its  slow  start,  it  will  issue  forth  at 
high  speed,  though  the  total  pressure  exerted  at 
any  one  time  is  comparatively  mild.  Look,  for 
instance,  at  the  blowpipe,  used  as  a  weapon  by 
some  savages.  Here  a  long  tube  with  a  smooth 
interior  contains  a  dart  which  fits  the  bore  loosely 


230  THE  GUN  BOOK 

enough  to  slide  readily  through  the  bore  and  still 
tightly  enough  to  prevent  much  leakage  of  air 
past  its  sides.  When  the  operator  blows  into  one 
end  of  the  tube  against  the  butt  of  his  dart,  the 
missile,  by  the  mere  force  of  the  man's  breath,  is 
driven  out  of  the  tube  with  speed  enough  to  kill 
a  small  animal,  or  even  a  man  if  the  hit  be  in  a 
vital  spot.  So,  too,  if  we  put  into  a  gun  some 
kind  of  powder  that  will  not  burn  instantly,  but 
take  an  appreciable  time  in  the  operation,  speed 
can  be  imparted  to  the  projectile  by  the  more 
gentle  but  longer  continued  force  thus  created. 
All  this  seems  simple  enough,  but  nevertheless  it 
gives  rise  to  a  large  part  of  the  science  of  gunnery. 
In  recognition  of  the  value  of  the  slow-starting, 
rapidly  accelerating  projectile  it  is  interesting  to 
note  at  least  two  of  the  attempts  ingenious  men 
have  made  to  accomplish  the  result  with  the  means 
at  their  hands.  In  1880  the  Lyman-Haskins 
cannon  was  produced,  from  which  much  was  ex- 
pected along  these  lines.  It  had  a  single  tube, 
but  with  a  row  of  several  separate  powder  cham- 
bers branching  from  it  below.  The  hope  was  that 
the  projectile  would  be  started  on  its  way  by  the 
explosion  of  the  charge  immediately  behind  it, 
and  be  thrust  forward  with  increasing  speed  as 
the  other  charges  in  the  auxiliary  chambers  were 


SMOKELESS  POWDER 


231 


THE  GUN  BOOK 

set  off  to  give  a  series  of  new  impulses  to  the 
already  moving  body.  Another  and  more  recent 
attempt  to  solve  the  same  problem  is  seen  in  the 
Zalinski  dynamite  gun  which  threw  from  its  main 
tube,  as  a  projectile,  a  heavy  charge  of  dynamite. 
As  this  dangerous  explosive  could  not  be  fired 
from  the  mouth  of  an  ordinary  cannon,  the 
Zalinski  gun  used  as  its  propulsive  power  com- 
pressed air  admitted  behind  the  missile  with 
gradually  increasing  pressure.  Both  of  the 
weapons  mentioned  were  American  inventions, 
but  never  came  to  anything,  though  the  Zalinski 
gun  was  used  in  Cuba  by  the  American  forces 
to  throw  several  of  its  charges  toward  the 
Spaniards  at  Santiago  Bay  in  our  war  with  Spain. 
There  is  one  peculiarity  of  gases  under  pres- 
sure in  the  gun  barrel  which  must  be  noticed  here, 
and  that  is  the  comparative  slowness  with  which 
they  begin  to  travel  toward  the  muzzle,  after  the 
explosion.  If  you  were  to  make  a  skyrocket  of 
dry,  loosely  packed  gunpowder  the  tube  would 
burst  and  the  rocket  fail  to  rise,  even  though  one 
end  is  open  ready  for  easy  escape  of  gas.  This 
is  because  the  powder  would  burn  almost  in- 
stantly, creating  heavy  pressure,  and  the  gas  pre- 
fers to  burst  its  way  out  sideways,  rather  than 
travel  the  length  of  the  tube  to  get  out.  So  it  is 


SMOKELESS  POWDER  233 

in  the  gun  barrel ;  at  the  explosion  of  gunpowder 
the  gas  presses  fiercely  upon  the  walls  of  the  tube, 
and  also  against  the  base  of  the  bullet,  forcing  the 
missile  out  by  the  first  impact ;  while  the  bulk  of 
the  gas  proceeds  toward  the  muzzle  only  after  it 
has  tried  and  failed  to  burst  its  way  through  at 
the  side.  By  this  time  the  projectile  is  out  of  the 
gun  and  receives  no  thrusting  action  from  that 
portion  of  the  gas  which  lagged  behind.  We 
therefore  burn  a  lot  of  powder  from  which  we  get 
no  benefit;  but  that  is  not  all.  The  walls  of  the 
tube,  to  foil  the  attempts  of  the  gas  to  burst  them, 
must  be  made  very  thick  and  strong  at  the  cham- 
ber where  the  explosion  takes  place,  while  the  for- 
ward part  of  the  barrel  has  little  to  do  except 
guide  the  projectile.  How  much  better  it  is,  then, 
to  create  our  propelling  gases,  not  instantly,  but 
more  gradually,  so  that  they  will  have  time  to  get 
under  way  toward  the  muzzle,  pushing  the  pro- 
jectile in  front  of  them,  and  not  linger  in  the 
breech  wasting  their  strength  against  the  sides 
of  the  tube ! 

In  a  previous  chapter  we  mentioned  the  practice 
of  forming  gunpowder  into  grains  of  different 
sizes  to  influence  the  rate  of  their  combustion, 
and  of  making  the  grains  hard  or  soft  to  effect 
the  same  purpose.  But  these  expedients  did  not 


THE  GUN  BOOK 

• 

fulfil  their  object  sufficiently  to  render  the  ex- 
plosive slow  enough  for  the  best  propulsion.  By 
making  the  grains  larger  the  burning  becomes 
slower,  to  be  sure,  though  not  in  the  degree  one 
would  expect.  The  greater  the  surface  of  the 
grain  the  greater  will  be  the  area  to  be  acted  upon 
by  the  fire;  while  as  the  pellet  is  consumed,  it 
grows  smaller  in  size  and  its  burning  surface 
therefore  decreases.  The  result  is  that,  though 
the  grain  is  long  in  disappearing,  the  greatest 
amount  of  gas  is  produced  in  the  first  stages  of 
the  explosion — which  is  just  what  we  wish  to 
avoid.  The  large-sized  grain,  therefore,  partly 
defeats  the  very  object  for  which  it  is  created. 

In  1860  General  T.  J.  Eodman,  of  the  United 
States  army,  in  trying  to  solve  the  problem  of 
slower  combustion,  hit  upon  the  idea  of  forming 
the  powder  into  cylinders  the  size  of  the  bore  of 
the  gun,  each  perforated  by  holes  running  length- 
wise through  them.  Afterward  he  built  the 
cylinders  out  of  small  pieces  fitting  together  and 
leaving  holes  through  the  mass  as  before.  The 
principles  involved  were  the  same  in  each  plan. 
His  idea  was  that  by  igniting  the  cylinder  from 
the  inside,  and  allowing  the  fire  to  eat  its  way 
outward,  the  burning  surface  would  be  small  at 
first  but  would  increase  as  the  holes  grew  larger, 


SMOKELESS  POWDER 


235 


thus  giving  the  greater  area  to  the  flame  at  the 
later  stages  of  the  explosion.  The  amount  of  gas 
produced,  and  therefore  the  pressure,  would  be 
low  when  the  projectile  began  to  move,  increasing 


m 


m 


FlG.  65. — This  is  General  Rodman's  first  invention  for  producing 
slow  combustion  at  the  first  part  of  the  explosion,  the  bulk 
of  the  powder  burning  later.  These  cylinders  are  com- 
pressed gunpowder  made  to  fit  the  cannon  bore;  they  are 
perforated  with  many  small  holes,  each  disk  being  separated 
from  the  one  ahead  of  it  by  wooden  blocks.  The  igniting  fire 
begins  to  burn  inside  the  small  holes,  the  burning  surfaces 
being  increased  as  combustion  progresses. 

as  it  proceeded  down  the  tube.  That  this  in- 
genious plan  was  correct  in  fact  as  well  as  theory 
was  proven  by  its  prompt  adoption  throughout 
the  world  in  artillery  ammunition. 

Though  Rodman's  discovery  was  a  most  valua- 
ble one,  it  did  not  perform  the  miracles  expected 
of  it.  The  explosion  was  now  modified  to  a  con- 


THE  GUN  BOOK 

siderable  extent,  and  cannon  tubes  were  at  once 
lengthened  to  take  advantage  of  the  longer  thrust 
given  to  the  projectile,  but  even  the  perforated 
cylinders  could  not  adequately  restrain  the  vio- 


FIG.  66. — The  difficulties  encountered  in  manufacturing  the 
powder  shown  in  the  preceding  illustration,  led  General 
Rodman  later  to  form  his  powder  into  perforated  cakes  as 
here  seen.  These  cakes  could  be  made  of  any  size  and  pieced 
together  to  fill  the  gun  bore.  The  angled  spaces  at  the  side 
proved  to  be  no  practical  detriment  in  securing  slower 
combustion. 

lence  of  the  explosive.     It  still  burned  far  too 
fast. 

A  new  attempt  to  solve  the  stubborn  problem 
of  leisurely  combustion  was  made  in  1880  by  the 
United  States  naval  officers.  They  produced  the 
explosive  called  " cocoa"  powder,  a  variety  of 
gunpowder  the  principal  features  of  which  were 


SMOKELESS  POWDER  237 

a  substantial  decrease  in  the  amount  of  sulphur 
it  contained  and  the  substitution  of  half -burned 
wood  for  charcoal.  The  woody  ingredient  gave 
it  a  brownish  color,  from  which  it  derived  its 
name.  "Cocoa"  powder  proved  to  be  the  slowest 
burning  of  all  gunpowders,  giving  low,  long-con- 
tinued pressures  in  the  gun  barrel.  It  had, 
though,  two  grievous  defects,  for  it  gave  off  an 
abundance  of  smoke  and  left  an  unusual  amount 
of  residue  coating  the  walls  of  the  tube,  to  ob- 
struct the  passage  of  the  projectile  at  the  next 
shot.  Yet  in  spite  of  these  drawbacks  the  new 
powder  gained  wide  acceptance  among  artil- 
lerists, until  its  career  was  cut  short  ten  years 
after  its  invention  by  the  perfecting  of  guncotton 
as  an  explosive,  which  quickly  rendered  gun- 
powder obsolete. 

While  " cocoa"  powder  and  Rodman's  cylin- 
ders never  had  much  effect  upon  hand  firearms, 
being  intended  only  for  use  in  cannon,  yet  they 
are  important  steps  in  the  progress  of  explosives. 
Knowing  about  them  and  the  obstacles  which  they 
were  intended  to  overcome  will  help  us  to  appre- 
ciate the  merits  of  the  marvelous  new  powder 
which  has  in  our  day  come  into  the  world. 

Guncotton  was  known  more  than  fifty  years 
before  it  succeeded  as  an  explosive  for  guns.  In 


238  THE  GUN  BOOK 

1832  Bracconnet,  a  French  chemist,  discovered  that 
if  he  put  vegetable  starch  into  nitric  acid  and 
then  washed  it  with  water  the  material  resulting 
would  violently  explode  on  concussion.  Pelouse, 
his  countryman,  soon  after  found  that  cotton 
after  being  soaked  in  the  same  acid  would  give 
like  results.  One  of  the  remarkable  things  about 
the  new  explosives  was  that  they  produced  no 
smoke  and  left  no  ash ;  the  whole  of  the  substances 
was  converted  into  gas.  But,  as  in  the  case  of 
Berthollet's  fulminate,  they  were  so  extremely 
sensitive  and  sudden  in  their  action  that  no  gun 
barrel  could  withstand  them;  perfectly  heedless 
of  where  the  muzzle  of  the  tube  was,  the  gases 
promptly  forced  a  passage  sideways  through  the 
metal.  Then  chemists  everywhere  began  to  try 
to  harness  these  unruly  explosives,  to  compel 
them  to  do  useful  work.  Cotton  proved  the  more 
promising  material  to  experiment  with,  because 
it  gave  a  product  that  had  less  variation  in  the 
force  of  its  explosions,  so  it  received  chief  atten- 
tion; though  from  wood  fiber  treated  with  nitric 
acid  was  produced  in  1865  the  excellent  powder 
called  "Schultze"  powder  now  much  used  in  shot- 
guns. Wood  fiber  is  cheaper  than  cotton  and  the 
shotgun  does  not  call  for  a  high  degree  of  uni- 
formity in  its  ammunition. 


SMOKELESS  POWDER  239 

We  have  not  the  space  here  to  set  out  in  detail 
the  tribulations  of  the  scientists  in  their  half- 
century  search  for  means  of  retarding  the  ex- 
plosion of  guncotton.  In  short,  their  labors  went 
on  unceasingly  during  the  whole  period,  to  be  at 
last  crowned  with  success,  though  after  many 
disappointments  and  even  disastrous  explosions, 
due  to  overconfidence  in  their  imperfect  products. 
The  chief  honors  in  the  conquest  are  due  to  the 
Swiss,  the  Austrians,  and  the  French ;  though  the 
American,  Hudson  Maxim,  had  a  not  unimportant 
part  in  the  final  success. 

Cotton  is  almost  pure  cellulose,  the  chemical 
formula  for  which  is  C6Hio05 ;  the  letters  standing 
respectively  for  carbon,-  hydrogen,  and  oxygen. 
When  soaked  in  nitric  acid  the  appearance  of  the 
cotton  does  not  change,  but  in  composition  it  has 
become  a  new  and  remarkable  substance,  called 
nitrocellulose.  In  spite  of  all  the  labors  of  science 
upon  the  subject,  we  do  not  yet  know  a  great  deal 
about  the  chemical  composition  of  nitrocellulose. 
When  the  cotton  is  soaked  in  the  acid  for  only 
a  short  time,  the  product  can  be  exploded  with 
difficulty,  if  at  all;  a  little  longer  soaking  makes 
explosion  of  it  easier;  while  still  further  contact 
with  the  acid  makes  of  the  innocent-looking  white 
fibers  one  of  the  most  violent  of  all  explosives. 


MO  THE  GUN  BOOK 

Thus  there  seem  to  be  a  series  of  nitrocelluloses, 
but  each  so  closely  resembling  the  other  that  it 
is  hard  to  say  where  one  leaves  off  and  the  other 
begins. 

The  cotton  receiving  only  a  brief  acid  bath  is 
not  used  for  explosives,  but  is  a  valuable  sub- 
stance in  the  arts,  for  when  dissolved  in  alcohol 
it  may  be  transformed  into  celluloid,  collodion, 
photographic  films,  and  artificial  ivory.  Here  we 
see  another  illustration  of  how  the  efforts  to 
improve  the  gun  have  indirectly  benefited  man- 
kind. 

Nitrocellulose  produced  by  long  contact  with 
the  acid  is  too  explosive  in  its  nature  to  be  yet 
adapted  to  the  making  of  ammunition.  But  when 
the  cotton  is  left  in  the  acid  bath  long  enough  to 
carry  the  chemical  action  past  the  celluloid- 
making  stage,  yet  removed  in  time  to  avoid  be- 
coming one  of  the  higher  explosives,  we  find  that 
we  can  compel  the  resulting  substance  to  give  us 
excellent  service  in  guns. 

It  is  probable  that  the  different  grades  of  nitro- 
cellulose have  definite  chemical  formulas,  if  we 
only  knew  them ;  but  we  do  not  at  present.  The 
molecules  of  the  more  highly  explosive  members 
of  the  class  seem  to  be  merely  multiples  of  the 
molecules  of  their  more  stable  kin.  This  makes 


SMOKELESS  POWDER 

exact  analysis  very  difficult.  As  an  illustration 
of  about  what  happens  in  the  exposure  of 
cotton  to  nitric  acid,  the  following  may  be 
taken :  2C6H1005  (cotton)  +  6HN03  (nitric  acid)  = 
C12H1404(N03)6  (guncotton)  +  6H20  (water).  As 
the  last  item,  water,  is  detrimental  to  the  product 
as  an  explosive,  it  is  taken  up  during  the  process 
by  some  absorbent,  usually  sulphuric  acid,  which 
has  a  strong  affinity  for  water  and  does  not  inter- 
fere with  the  chemical  action. 

After  the  cotton  has  been  allowed  to  lie  in  the 
acid  bath  for  exactly  the  proper  time  to  secure 
the  right  degree  of  nitrating  it  is  taken  out  and 
allowed  to  stand  a  while  with  the  acid  still  upon 
it.  Then  it  is  washed  thoroughly  to  remove  the 
acid,  and  is  called  guncotton,  still  as  fluffy  and 
white  as  when  the  process  began.  It  is  not  yet 
powder,  for,  until  it  is  robbed  of  its  sudden  vio- 
lence in  explosion  by  the  addition  of  slowing-up 
substances,  it  cannot  be  put  into  guns. 

At  this  stage  the  chemical  reaction  for  the  ex- 
plosion of  the  guncotton  is  something  like  this : 
2C12H1404(N03)6  =  18CO  +  6C02  +  12N  +  14H20. 
In  the  order  named  the  new  products  are  carbon 
monoxide,  a  gas, — carbon  dioxide,  a  gas, — nitro- 
gen, a  gas, — and  water,  a  gas  when  heated,  as  in 
the  explosion.  One  ounce  of  guncotton  has  pro- 


THE  GUN  BOOK 

duced  as  much  gas  as  three  ounces  of  gunpowder 
would  make,  but  this  is  not  all;  for,  unlike  gun- 
powder, the  whole  of  the  solid  substance  is  con- 
verted into  gas,  leaving  no  residue.  Compared 
with  this  efficiency  the  old  black  powder  with  its 
fifty-seven  per  cent  of  ashy  residue  seems  hardly 
worthy  to  be  called  an  explosive. 

It  was  these  great  merits  of  guncotton  that 
induced  scientists  to  toil  so  long  in  the  effort  to 
tame  it  sufficiently  for  use  in  guns.  One  of  the 
most  surprising  discoveries  made  in  this  connec- 
tion was  that  if  the  guncotton  were  dissolved  and 
mixed  with  nitroglycerine,  another  violent  ex- 
plosive, the  mixture  became  much  more  moderate 
and  slower  in  exploding  than  either  one  of  the 
substances  used  separately.  No  reason  is  known 
for  this  strange  result,  unless  it  is  that  the  gun- 
cotton  contained  too  little  oxygen  for  a  well- 
balanced  compound,  while  the  nitroglycerine  con- 
tained too  much.  The  guncotton,  you  will  see  by 
its  reaction,  gives  eighteen  molecules  of  carbon 
monoxide,  which  is  incompletely  burned  carbon, 
carbon  dioxide  being  the  natural  molecule.  But 
as  there  is  not  enough  oxygen  to  give  two  atoms 
of  oxygen  to  each  atom  of  carbon,  some  of  them 
have  to  be  content  with  a  half-portion.  This 
condition,  existing  in  the  guncotton  at  the  start, 


SMOKELESS  POWDER  243 

probably  makes  it  so  sensitive  and  violent ;  while 
the  extra  oxygen  which  the  nitroglycerine  brings 
into  the  mixture  satisfies  the  desire  of  all  the 
carbon  atoms.  How  true  this  explanation  may 
be,  or  just  how  the  odd  result  is  brought  we  do 
not  now  know.  Perhaps  time  will  tell. 

The  first  cotton  powder  successfully  used  in 
guns  was  that  containing  a  portion  of  nitro- 
glycerine. To  further  soften  the  shock  of  the 
explosion  other  deterrents  were  also  added,  the 
principal  substances  so  used  being  graphite  and 
heavy  oils  like  vaseline.  This  result  was  still  fur- 
ther aided  by  first  forming  the  mixture  into  a 
paste  and  then  converting  it  into  hard  grains  or 
rods,  which  burned  more  slowly,  as  in  the  case  of 
gunpowder.  It  was  not  long,  though,  before  it 
was  found  that  the  nitroglycerine,  when  used  in 
large  quantities,  seriously  injured  the  tubes  of 
guns,  by  forming  upon  them  a  rust-like  scale, 
which  made  repeated  firing  quickly  wear  them 
out.  This  did  not  cause  the  abandonment  of  gun- 
cotton  ammunition,  for  its  advantages  were  too 
great  to  permit  that.  By  decreasing  the  amount 
of  the  offending  ingredient  used  its  harmful 
effects  were  lessened,  while  the  other  foreign  sub- 
stances were  increased  to  offset  the  loss.  Of 
guncotton  powders  there  are  scores  today,  all 


THE  GUN  BOOK 

differing  slightly,  nearly  all  containing  some 
nitroglycerine,  though  the  tendency  is  to  reduce 
the  amount  used  and  to  do  away  with  it  entirely 
where  possible,  relying  upon  the  less  objection- 
able deterrents. 

Guncotton  powder  burns  quietly  when  lighted 
in  the  open,  seeming  to  be  in  no  hurry  at  all.  It 
cannot  be  exploded  by  a  blow  unless  first  made 
hot.  In  the  gun  barrel  it  takes  a  strong  primer 
to  set  it  off,  for  the  explosion  seems  to  result 
partly  from  heat  and  partly  from  shock.  Just 
how  its  gradual  decomposition  takes  place  in  the 
gun  we  do  not  wholly  understand,  but  the  most 
reasonable  theory  now  held  is  that,  when  the 
flame  from  the  primer  strikes  the  base  of  the 
charge,  it  burns  the  outer  layers  of  the  rearmost 
grains,  making  gas,  and  doing  this  so  suddenly 
that  a  shock  is  communicated  to  that  part  of  the 
charge,  exploding  it.  The  gas  thus  formed  heats 
and  shocks  into  explosion  the  grains  next  to  it; 
and  so  on,  heating  and  shocking,  until  the  grains 
in  front  are  reached  and  the  whole  charge  turned 
into  gas.  During  this  rather  complicated  and 
comparatively  slow  process,  the  gases  first 
formed  begin  to  push  both  charge  and  projectile 
down  the  barrel,  the  composition  of  the  powder 
and  the  quantity  used  being  just  right  to  have  the 


SMOKELESS  POWDER 

burning  completed  when  the  bullet  reaches  the 
muzzle. 

Whether  the  reasons  thus  given  are  correct  or 
not,  we  at  least  know  that  guncotton  powder  keeps 
up  its  decomposing  process  during  the  whole 
journey  of  the  projectile  from  breech  to  muzzle. 
In  this  its  action  differs  greatly  from  that  of  gun- 
powder, for  with  the  latter  the  explosion  takes 
place  principally  at  the  extreme  breech.  From 
the  new  powder  we  therefore  gain  the  advantage 
of  the  long  mild  push,  the  value  of  which  was 
illustrated  by  comparison  with  the  pull  of  gravity 
and  the  missile  from  the  blowpipe  at  the  beginning 
of  this  chapter. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE  MODERN  RIFLE 

HAVING  learned  in  the  last  chapter  how,  by  the 
aid  of  the  new,  slow-burning  powder,  we  can  im- 
part great  velocity  to  our  projectile  by  means  of 
low  pressure  applied  through  longer  time  and 
distance,  we  are  now  ready  to  go  on  and  note  the 
striking  changes  this  development  has  wrought  in 
the  gunner's  art.  Especially  are  we  to  see  how 
the  coveted  flat  trajectory  was  thereby  secured. 

Though  guncotton  gives,  weight  for  weight, 
about  three  times  the  amount  of  gas  produced  by 
the  older  explosive,  yet  when  the  retarding 
adulterants  have  been  added  to  make  it  smoke- 
less powder,  the  difference  between  the  two  in 
the  amount  of  gas  is  much  decreased.  In  general, 
however,  it  may  be  said  that  the  smokeless  powder 
gives  about  twice  the  propulsive  effect  of  gun- 
powder, which  means,  of  course,  that  only  half 
the  quantity  is  required  to  give  the  same  velocity 
to  the  bullet.  But  this  is  only  the  starting-point 

246 


THE  MODERN  RIFLE  247 

in  the  enumeration  of  the  virtues  of  the  new  ex- 
plosive. 

There  was  an  early  limit  to  the  velocity  that 
could  be  given  to  a  projectile  by  gunpowder  with 
its  sudden  explosion.  Where  very  large  charges 
were  used,  as  we  have  seen,  the  main  body  of 
gas  spent  an  appreciable  time  in  fighting  the  walls 
of  the  gun  barrel  before  acknowledging  defeat 
and  taking  the  longer  journey  to  liberty  through 
the  muzzle.  The  bullet,  meanwhile,  having  been 
moved  forward  by  the  gas  nearest  it,  was  far  down 
the  barrel,  or  clear  of  it  entirely,  before  the 
strongest  outrush  of  gas  began.  Therefore  an 
excessive  powder  charge  created  great  pressure 
on  the  gun,  and  unduly  increased  the  shock  of 
recoil,  without  adding  much  to  the  speed  of  the 
projectile.  By  experiment  the  later  gun  makers 
determined  the  correct  amount  of  powder  that 
could  be  burned  behind  their  bullet  to  give  it  the 
greatest  velocity  with  least  waste  and  with  an  ex- 
plosion moderate  enough  not  to  strain  the  gun,  or 
create  undue  recoil.  The  quantity  of  powder  so 
fixed  was  called  an  "ordinary  charge"  for  that 
particular  kind  of  gun. 

In  the  days  of  black  powder  it  was  estimated 
that  if  the  length  of  the  gun  barrel  were  twenty 
times  the  diameter  of  its  bore  the  bullet  would 


248  THE  GUN  BOOK 

then  gain  practically  all  the  speed  which  an 
" ordinary  charge"  could  impart  to  it.  Thus  if 
the  bore  were  half  an  inch,  the  barrel  need  be 
only  ten  inches  long  to  allow  the  bullet  to  receive 
the  full  propulsive  effect  of  the  explosion.  If  the 
bore  were  only  a  third  of  an  inch  the  barrel  thus 
prescribed  would  be  but  six  and  two-thirds  inches 
in  length.  Any  additional  extension  only  created 
greater  friction  to  retard  the  bullet.  With  the 
coming  of  smokeless  powder  this  formula  has 
been  greatly  changed,  so  that  the  rule  now  is  that 
the  length  of  the  barrel  must  be  at  least  fifty 
times  the  diameter  of  the  bore,  in  order  to  give 
the  bullet  the  full  propulsive  effect.  This  change 
reveals  to  us  how  much  greater  is  the  distance 
through  which  the  new  powder  applies  its  force. 
The  push  administered  to  the  base  of  the  pro- 
jectile is  continued  two  and  a  half  times  as  long 
as  formerly.  Of  course  the  barrels  of  hand  guns 
have  always  been  longer  than  is  called  for  by 
formulas,  but  the  point  to  be  noted  here  is  that 
under  the  old  conditions  only  a  short  section  of 
the  barrel  near  the  breech  sustained  the  pressure 
of  the  explosive,  while  now  the  work  is  distributed 
over  a  much  greater  section  of  the  tube. 

The  result  is  that,  instead  of  an  immense  strain 
at  the  immediate  breech,  we  now  have  a  more 


THE  MODERN  RIFLE  249 

moderate  pressure  extending  further  forward 
than  before.  Therefore  a  well-made  gun  barrel 
in  these  days  requires  a  longer  section  of  medium 
strength,  rather  than  one  extremely  thick  at  the 
very  breech  and  becoming  thin  again  within  a  few 
inches. 

In  the  case  of  the  rifle  a  long  barrel  is  regarded 
necessary  to  give  the  bullet  a  longer  passage 
through  the  grooves,  insuring  proper  spin.  In 
all  guns,  however,  the  extra  weight  at  the  outer 
end  is  a  benefit  in  preventing  the  violent  upward 
throw  from  recoil,  such  as  we  see  in  the  short 
revolver  when  fired.  The  long  tube,  too,  allowed 
greater  distance  between  the  sights,  which  is  of 
much  assistance  in  straight  aiming;  then  again, 
there  was  in  times  past  a  firm  though  illogical 
belief  that  great  length  of  barrel  guided  the  ball 
more  truly.  It  was  in  pursuance  of  all  these  ends 
that  the  old  Spanish  musket  boasted  a  tube  of 
six  or  more  feet  in  length,  while  the  New  England 
colonists  ordered  their  match-locks  "4  foote  in 
the  barril."  The  modern  rifle,  likewise,  bears  a 
longer  barrel  than  is  demanded  by  propulsive 
requirements;  for,  according  to  the  rule,  since 
the  bore  is  one-third  of  an  inch  in  diameter,  the 
length  of  the  barrel  need  be  only  sixteen  and  two- 
thirds  inches  to  insure  proper  combustion  of  its 


250  THE  GUN  BOOK 

charge ;  in  fact,  however,  it  is  usually  twenty-four 
inches  or  more. 

The  barrel  of  the  hand  gun,  therefore,  being 
intended  for  purposes  other  than  propulsion 
alone,  does  not  readily  show  in  its  outward  form 
the  changes  in  construction  introduced  by  smoke- 
less powder.  In  artillery,  where  weight  and 
length  have  always  been  reduced  as  far  as  possi- 
ble, the  visible  changes  wrought  are  startling,  as 
the  two  following  pictures  will  show. 

The  first  cannon  shown  was  made  in  1880  and 
is  one  of  the  best  of  its  time.  Its  caliber  is  twelve 
and  one-half  inches  and  its  tube  sixteen  and  one- 
half  feet  long;  which  length  was  carefully  calcu- 
lated to  allow  the  projectile  to  receive  all  the 
force  the  black  powder  explosion  would  transmit 
to  it.  The  second  picture  shows  a  twelve-inch 
modern  naval  gun  which  is  forty-five  and  one-half 
feet  long.  In  this  weapon  the  strong  gas  pressure 
follows  the  projectile  the  whole  length  of  the  tube 
and  is  yet  strong  enough  at  the  muzzle  to  give  it 
a  slight  added  impetus  after  it  clears  the  bore. 
The  great  contrast  in  the  shapes  of  the  two  pieces 
reveals  clearly  the  difference  in  the  nature  of  the 
explosions  produced  by  the  two  kinds  of  powder. 

Above  the  picture  of  each  gun  is  a  curve  which 
indicates  the  pressure  in  tons  per  square  inch 


THE  MODERN  RIFLE 


251 


exerted  against  the  walls  of  the  tube  at  various 
points  when  an  "ordinary  charge"  is  exploded 
in  it.  The  weights  of  the  projectiles  and  their 
velocities  differ  too  greatly  for  ready  comparison 
(for  the  long  slender  gun  is  immensely  more 


FIG.  67. — Illustrating  the  pressure  of  powder  explosion  in  different 
types  of  cannon.     A,  Rodman  Gun;   B,  Modern  Naval  Gun. 

powerful  than  the  short,  bulky  one) ;  but  the  dif- 
ferences in  pressure  are  very  interesting.  The 
old  gun  used  one  hundred  and  thirty  pounds  of 
black  powder  and,  as  its  curve  shows,  this  com- 
paratively puny  charge  created  a  high  pressure 
of  nearly  twenty-four  tons,  confined  to  a  short 


THE  GUN  BOOK 

section  near  the  breech.  Such  a  force  in  so  large 
a  bore  is  dangerous  in  any  gun,  however  carefully 
constructed,  for  even  steel  has  its  limitations  in 
strength.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  piling  steel 
upon  steel  does  not  increase  the  strength  of  the 
tube  in  proportion  to  its  thickness,  so  that  the 
big  gun  of  1880  represents  about  the  maximum 
power  possible  in  artillery  using  gunpowder  as 
an  explosive.  The  new  gun,  on  the  other  hand, 
shows  a  maximum  pressure  of  only  fifteen  and 
three-tenths  tons  per  square  inch,  though  its 
charge  produces  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  and 
one-half  times  as  much  gas  as  the  black  powder 
charge  in  the  old  gun.  This  great  difference  in 
maximum  pressures  arises  from  the  peculiarities 
of  the  two  explosives.  The  one  creates  its  smaller 
amount  of  gas  suddenly  and  at  the  extreme 
breech;  while  the  other,  burning  slowly,  dis- 
tributes its  pressure  gradually  from  breech  to 
muzzle ;  the  total  thrust  given  the  projectile,  how- 
ever, being  five  times  that  imparted  by  the  smaller, 
quick-burning  charge.  In  the  one  case  great 
strength  is  required  of  the  gun  around  the  powder- 
chamber  itself,  though  the  pressure  dwindles  rap- 
idly from  there  forward;  in  the  other  case  mod- 
erate strength  is  required  of  the  tube  throughout 
its  length.  The  total  weight  of  the  tube  built  for 


THE  MODERN  RIFLE  253 

smokeless  powder  will  be  less  than  half  that  of 
the  one  built  to  withstand  an  equivalent  charge 
of  black  powder.  The  revolutionary  effect  of 
smokeless  powder  upon  artillery  is  thus  apparent. 

Now,  after  using  the  cannon  to  illustrate  the 
great  virtues  of  smokeless  powder  as  a  pro- 
pellant,  let  us  note  the  effects  of  the  new  explosive 
upon  hand  guns.  In  Chapter  XIV  we  left  the 
gun  inventor  struggling  to  lower  the  trajectory 
of  his  bullet  by  making  the  missile  thinner  and 
longer,  but  finding  his  efforts  thwarted  by  in- 
ability to  make  it  spin  fast  enough  to  remain 
point  forward  in  flight.  He  had  succeeded  to  some 
extent  in  the  endeavor  by  using  alloys  to  harden 
the  lead,  thereby  giving  it  a  firmer  grip  on  the 
rifling,  though  the  reduction  in  diameter  thus 
gained  was  still  much  less  than  he  desired.  He 
could  send  his  over-broad  bullet  out  of  the  muzzle 
of  his  gun  at  good  speed,  but  the  great  air  resist- 
ance it  met  quickly  slowed  it  down,  resulting  in 
high  trajectory  and  consequently  poor  marksman- 
ship. His  hopes  were  now  to  be  realized,  how- 
ever, and  in  greater  measure  than  he  even  foresaw. 

When  about  1890  smokeless  powder  was  per- 
fected sufficiently  to  permit  its  being  used  in  hand 
guns,  the  many  virtues  it  possessed  recommended 
it  highly  for  that  purpose.  The  absence  of  smoke 


THE  GUN  BOOK 

alone  promised  great  things  for  the  soldier.  With 
the  new  powder  he  could  shoot  from  cover,  with- 
out the  telltale  blue  vapor  to  reveal  his  hiding- 
place;  while  the  battle  line  could  fire  repeatedly 
without  having  its  view  shut  off  by  clouds  of 
obscuring  smoke,  such  as  was  emitted  by  the  old 
powder.  The  avoidance  of  residue  in  the  gun 
barrel  after  firing,  too,  was  a  great  relief,  for 
with  the  new  explosive  cleaning  was  necessary 
only  after  fifty  shots,  instead  of  ten  as  before. 
Another  advantage  of  the  cellulose  powder,  even 
more  important  than  any  of  these,  was  the  effect 
on  recoil.  It  was  found  that  the  gradual  burning 
process  started  the  bullet  very  slowly,  giving  it 
speed  by  degrees,  and  thus  greatly  decreased  the 
shock  against  the  shoulder  of  the  firer,  and  les- 
sened the  upward  throw  of  the  barrel.  This  qual- 
ity alone  would  have  given  smokeless  powder  pre- 
eminence, for  it  meant  that  more  gases  could  be 
created  in  the  gun  barrel  and  more  speed  given 
the  bullet,  without  increasing  the  kick.  The  chief 
part  played,  however,  by  smokeless  powder  in 
lowering  trajectory  yet  remains  to  be  stated. 

When  the  bullet  starts  very  slowly  down  the 
tube,  receiving  its  impetus  in  easy  stages,  the 
rifle  grooves  cause  it  to  revolve  gently  at  first, 
the  speed  of  rotation  gaining  as  the  forward  mo- 


THE  MODERN  RIFLE  255 

tion  quickens.  Now  this  is  exactly  what  the  so- 
called  " accelerating  twist"  did  to  the  old  sugar- 
loaf  bullet.  In  the  latter  case  the  rifling  turned 
slowly  near  the  breech,  increasing  the  rotation 
toward  the  muzzle.  Smokeless  powder  achieved 
the  same  result  by  actually  allowing  the  bullet  to 
lag  along  at  first,  progressing  slowly  and  revolv- 
ing slowly,  giving  the  rifle  grooves  a  chance  to 
get  the  rotating  motion  under  way  by  degrees, 
instead  of  almost  instantly,  as  with  the  more 
sudden  explosion  of  black  powder.  The  effect  of 
this  was,  of  course,  to  allow  faster  spin  to  be 
imparted  to  the  projectile,  without  the  danger  of 
its  rushing  through  the  tube  in  partial  or  entire 
disregard  of  the  spirals. 

In  spite  of  these  manifold  advantages  of  the 
new  powder,  however,  it  developed  a  very  serious 
drawback  in  the  early  attempts  to  use  it  in  hand 
guns.  Smokeless  powders,  and  especially  those 
varieties  containing  much  nitroglycerine,  as  most 
of  them  did  at  first,  produce  great  heat  in  ex- 
ploding, even  up  to  4,500  degrees.  Then,  too,  it 
is  a  peculiar  fact  that  when  two  metals  are  blended 
together  in  an  alloy  the  mixture  melts  at  a  lower 
temperature  than  either  of  the  metals  would  in 
its  pure  state.  Therefore  when  the  lead  bullet, 
hardened  by  admixture  of  tin  or  some  other  metal, 


256  THE  GUN  BOOK 

was  fired  by  means  of  a  charge  of  smokeless 
powder  the  butt  end  of  the  missile  melted  under 
the  high  heat  created  by  the  explosion.  The 
molten  metal  remaining  in  the  gun  barrel  then 
choked  the  rifling,  while  the  defprmed  bullet  sped 
forth  a  cripple,  unbalanced  and  unsteady  in 
flight.  This  difficulty  was  fatal  to  the  use  of  the 
new  explosive  for  a  short  time,  until  the  inven- 
tion of  a  means  of  avoiding  it.  This  invention, 
too,  did  more  than  merely  prevent  fusing  of  the 
bullet,  for  by  its  aid  practically  the  whole  remain- 
ing question  of  rapid  rotation  was  solved. 

Instead  of  trying  to  increase  the  melting-point 
of  the  bullet,  some  one  not  now  known  to  history, 
but  entitled  to  high  credit  for  his  ingenuity,  hit 
upon  the  idea  of  encasing  the  leaden  missile  in  a 
thin  envelope  of  steel  or  other  hard  metal.  This 
device  not  only  protected  the  soft  lead  from  the 
heat  of  the  explosion,  but  at  the  same  time  gave 
the  bullet  a  more  secure  hold  on  the  rifle  grooves 
than  had  ever  before  been  deemed  possible.  By 
its  use,  and  with  the  aid  of  smokeless  powder, 
practically  any  speed  of  rotation  could  be  im- 
parted to  the  missile,  without  its  "jumping"  the 
grooves.  Of  course  the  wear  upon  the  inner  sur- 
face of  the  gun  barrel  was  intensified  by  the  hard- 
surfaced  projectile,  but  material  damage  has  been 


THE  MODERN  RIFLE  257 

successfully  avoided  by  making  the  walls  of  the 
tube  also  extremely  hard.  It  is  now  estimated 
that  at  least  fifteen  thousand  shots  can  be  fired 
from  a  well-made  gun  using  such  bullets  before 
signs  of  wear  will  appear.  The  missile  with  the 
hard  envelope,  which  is  usually  made  of  alloyed 
copper  and  nickel,  we  call  the  "metal-patched" 
bullet,  and  its  use  has  become  well-nigh  universal 
with  smokeless  powder. 

The  slow  start  of  the  bullet  down  the  barrel 
allowed  by  smokeless  powder,  combined  with  the 
superior  gripping  powers  of  the  new  bullet,  had 
the  immediate  effect  of  reducing  the  diameter  of 
rifle  barrels.  From  .45,  .44,  and  .38  caliber,  the 
standard  bore  became  three-tenths  of  an  inch,  or 
.30  caliber.  This  was  practically  the  old  .32,  which 
had  previously  been  considered  as  little  more 
than  a  toy.  The  metal-patched  bullet  did  not 
require  so  deep  a  "bite"  as  the  one  with  the  softer 
surface,  so  that  rifle  grooves  became  much  more 
shallow  than  before,  changing  from  two  to  four 
one-hundredths  of  an  inch  in  depth,  to  the  same 
number  of  thousandths.  The  grooves  now  im- 
parted a  spin  of  one  turn  in  from  six  to  ten 
inches,  which  expressed  in  calibers  would  be 
one  turn  in  20  calibers  for  the  six-inch  twist, 
and  one  in  33%  calibers  in  the  ten-inch  spiral. 


258  THE  GUN  BOOK 

In  comparison  with  the  old  rifles,  which  gave  a 
turn  in  seventy-five  or  a  hundred  calibers,  the 
modern  bullet  spins  at  a  terrific  rate,  advancing 
from  hundreds  of  revolutions  per  second  to  thou- 
sands. With  this  remarkable  decrease  in  calibers 
and  increase  in  spin  to  keep  the  bullet  straight 
upon  its  course,  the  thin,  sharp  missile  could  not 
only  be  sent  off  at  a  higher  speed,  but  owing  to 
the  low  air  resistance  met  on  its  journey,  that 
speed  was  maintained  through  a  long  distance. 
Thus  the  two  requirements  of  lower  trajectory 
were  supplied  in  good  measure. 

But  the  whole  story  of  trajectory  is  not  yet 
told.  The  mildness  of  recoil  from  smokeless 
powder,  permitting  a  much  more  powerful  ex- 
plosion in  the  gun  barrel,  without  serious  dis- 
turbance from  the  shock,  allowed  an  increase  in 
the  amount  of  explosive  which  could  be  used. 
When  this  was  done,  still  higher  velocities  re- 
sulted. From  fifteen  tons  to  the  square  inch, 
which  was  about  the  limit  which  recoil  per- 
mitted in  black-powder  guns,  the  pressures  were 
increased  to  twenty  and  twenty-five  tons  per 
square  inch.  Improvements  in  steel  making  not 
only  furnished  barrels  capable  of  bearing  these 
tremendous  strains,  but  the  ability  of  the  gun 
barrel  to  resist  the  high  pressure  was  also  aided 


THE  MODERN  RIFLE  259 

by  the  reduction  in  the  size  of  the  tube  itself. 
This  latter  principle  was  what  permitted  the  use 
of  the  ancient  corned  powder  in  hand  guns  when 
prohibited  in  artillery;  for,  as  we  recall,  the 
small-bored  tube,  having  fewer  square  inches  of 
surface  than  one  of  larger  bore,  will  bear  the 
greater  pressures,  though  the  materials  and 
thicknesses  of  the  two  be  identical.  From  these 
heavy  pressures  the  new  projectiles  received 
velocities  of  two  to  three  thousand  feet  per  sec- 
ond; whereas,  in  the  old  guns,  fifteen  hundred 
feet  per  second  was  about  the  highest  speed  at- 
tainable, on  account  of  the  greater  weights  of 
their  bullets,  their  excessive  recoil,  and  the  low 
efficiency  of  large  powder  charges. 

One  other  important  reason  for  the  low  recoil 
experienced  under  the  new  high  pressures  lay  in 
the  decreased  weight  of  the  bullets  used.  The  old 
bullets,  lacking  high  velocity,  had  to  have  weight 
to  enable  them  to  hit  hard.  The  .45  caliber,  there- 
fore, contained  from  three  to  four  hundred  grains 
of  lead.  The  new  bullets,  on  the  other  hand,  are 
only  about  half  these  weights,  ranging  from  one 
hundred  and  fifty  to  two  hundred  grains.  As  we 
have  already  learned,  a  heavy  bullet  shot  slowly 
produces  as  much  recoil  as  a  'lighter  one  sent  off 
fast.  Thanks  to  its  great  speed,  the  smaller  mis- 


260  THE  GUN  BOOK 

sile  strikes  a  powerful  blow,  for  our  rule  is  that 
the  energy  of  the  projectile  increases  as  the  square 
of  its  velocity.  The  smaller  body  going  fast  does 
as  much  execution  as  the  heavier  one  going  more 
slowly.  The  chief  advantage  of  the  small  one  is 
that  its  narrow  body  meets  less  air  resistance, 
which  allows  it  to  fly  further,  faster,  and  closer  to 
the  ground.  These  qualities  are  just  what  the 
earlier  gun  makers  tried  to  attain  in  their 
"express"  rifle,  but  of  which  they,  with  their 
limited  facilities,  fell  far  short. 

Encased  in  its  hard  metal  envelope  the  new 
bullet,  however,  revealed  one  defect  so  serious 
that  both  soldier  and  hunter  hesitated  to  adopt 
it  whole-heartedly.  Being  so  thin  and  sharp,  the 
projectile  fired  at  a  man  or  an  animal  would, 
unless  it  struck  a  bone,  slip  through  the  flesh, 
making  a  wound  so  slight  that  little  damage  was 
done.  The  hunter  found  that  his  deer  would  run 
off  almost  unconcernedly  with  one  or  more  of 
these  small  punctures  through  his  body.  British 
soldiers,  in  skirmishes  with  natives  in  Africa,  had 
to  hit  a  warrior  several  times  before  he  would 
cease  his  half-frantic  rush  forward.  To  overcome 
this  defect  it  became  customary  to  form  the  en- 
velope so  as  to  leave  the  soft  lead  exposed  at  the 
point,  thus  making  what  are  known  as  "dum- 


THE  MODERN  RIFLE  261 

dum"  bullets,  which  spread  on  entering  even  soft 
flesh.  On  account  of  the  frightful  wounds  in- 
flicted by  such  bullets,  civilized  nations  agreed 
not  to  use  them  in  warfare  with  one  another  (a 
compact  flagrantly  ignored,  however,  by  a  certain 
nation  now  fighting  in  Europe).  But  since  the 
purpose  of  the  hunter  is  to  kill  his  quarry  as 
quickly  as  possible,  and  to  avoid  the  wounding 
of  animals  only  to  have  them  escape  and  die  in 
slow  misery,  he  has  adopted  the  soft-pointed 
bullet.  By  its  aid,  the  small-bored,  high-velocity 
gun  has  become  available  for  sportsmen,  who  be- 
fore its  introduction  stuck  to  their  old  big  bores 
and  heavy  projectiles,  simply  because  of  their 
superior  killing  power. 

Let  us  now  compare  the  areas  of  the  cross- 
sections  of  some  of  the  old  bullets  with  that 
of  the  .30  caliber.  As  air  resistance,  generally 
speaking,  increases  directly  in  proportion  to  the 
area  of  missiles  traveling  at  like  speed,  the  won- 
derful reduction  of  air  pressures  accomplished 
by  the  use  of  the  thin  bullet  will  be  made  clear 
from  the  following  pictures. 

The  difference  between  the  old  and  new  trajec- 
tories is  also  very  interesting.  We  give  below 
diagrams  of  a  few  of  the  former,  for  comparison 
with  that  of  the  Springfield  rifle  now  used  by  the 


THE  GUN  BOOK 

United  States  army,  one  of  the  best  of  modern 
military  guns. 

The    low    trajectory    curve    followed    by    the 


FIG.  68. — That  the  reader  may  adequately  realize  the  great 
changes  which  have  come  in  the  sizes  and  shapes  of  bullets, 
five  well-known  types  are  here  given  for  comparison.  They 
are,  respectively:  A,  the  spherical  musket  bullet  of  ancient 
memory;  B,  the  Minie  bullet  used  prior  to  1865;  0,  the 
Spencer  repeating  rifle  bullet  introduced  during  our  Civil 
War;  D,  the  hugh  projectile  used  in  our  army  Springfield 
rifle  from  1870  down  to  the  war  with  Spain;  E,  our  present 
service  bullet,  sometimes  called  the  Spitzer,  after  a  German 
army  officer,  but  which  is  merely  a  refinement  of  our  old 
sugar-loaf  form.  As  air  resistance  decreases  with  decrease 
in  area  of  cross-section  it  is  easy  to  see  why  the  .30-caliber 
missile  will  carry  over  three  miles. 

The  channels  around  the  bodies  of  the  bullets  are  to 
contain  grease  01*  wax  which  lubricates  the  passage  down  the 
barrel. 

Springfield  bullet  thus  permits  a  soldier  to  lie 
upon  the  ground  and  shoot  his  bullet  636  yards 
before  it  comes  to  earth,  the  missile  at  no  time 


THE  MODERN  RIFLE 


/ 

\ 

J 

jj 

/  1 

/ 

1 

/ 

/ 

/ 

• 

f 

t 

i 

I 

t 

1 

_» 
\t 

t! 

V 

Lu 

) 

CT) 

| 

1 

yz? 

i 

^2 

l-^ 

'1 

\Qj 

t 

\ 

\ 

\ 

\ 

i 

co  o 
10  o 


s  $-• 


W     **    O 

ws 


. 

Wi 
d,  ] 


ted 


m 
0. 
ing 


;;i?* 

:fi*|l 

CO  S 

53  -r  o 

aSs 


p-l    DH 

OQ 


-M     S 

.8^ 

ga 

,o" 


^       ^ 


264  THE  GUN  BOOK 

rising  above  five  and  one-half  feet,  the  average 
height  of  a  man.  If  a  human  target  be  anywhere 
in  front  of  the  bullet  within  that  distance  he  will 
be  hit  in  some  portion  of  his  body.  How  greatly 
such  low  trajectories  aid  the  soldier  and  hunter 
will  be  apparent  when  we  recall  that  in  field 
shooting  with  black-powder  guns  it  was  estimated 
that  errors  in  judging  distance  caused  four  missed 
shots  for  each  miss  due  to  variations  of  the  bullet 
to  right  or  left  of  the  target.  The  modern  rifle, 
therefore,  sends  a  low-flying  missile  over  a  course 
so  long  that  the  human  eye  is  taxed  to  aim  the 
piece  truly  at  full  range,  which  fact  suggests  that 
the  next  great  advance  in  gunnery  will  be  some 
practical  apparatus  to  aid  the  rifleman's  vision. 
In  rapidity  of  fire  the  rifle  now  in  use  cannot 
be  said  to  have  reached  the  end  of  its  develop- 
ment, though  breech  mechanisms  seem  to  be  as 
efficient  as  is  permitted  when  the  firer's  hand  is 
employed  to  eject  the  empty  shell  and  recharge 
the  gun  for  each  shot.  But  speeding  up  the  rate 
of  fire  in  hand  guns  is  a  problem  now  almost 
attained,  as  will  appear  when  we  come  to  the 
subject  of  the  automatic  rifle — offspring  of  the 
machine  gun. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

FROM  MACHINE  GUN  TO  AUTOMATIC 
RIFLE 

IN  reading  what  has,  in  times  past,  been 
written  about  the  origin  of  the  gun,  one  does  not 
go  far  before  coming  across  the  name  Berthold 
Schwartz,  that  half-mythical  German  who  was 
born  in  Freiburg  about  the  year  1300.  To  him 
many  German  historians  have  credited  the  inven- 
tion of  cannon  and  hand  gun.  And  not  content 
with  that  they  have  gone  the  further  length  of 
allotting  to  this  superman  the  honor  of  being  the 
Erfinder  of  gunpowder  itself.  To  make  his 
fame  secure  in  their  memories  his  fellow-towns- 
men have  erected  to  him  a  statue  at  the  base  of 
which  is  set  forth  these  three  great  achievements. 

That  Schwartz  lived  and  made  cannon  in  the 
fourteenth  century  is  true  enough;  but  the  total 
lack  of  evidence  to  support  the  preposterous 
claims  made  in  his  behalf  makes  their  assertion 
a  piece  of  mere  national  self -flattery. 

A  somewhat  similar  charge  is  likely  to  be  made 

265 


266  THE  GUN  BOOK 

by  one  not  familiar  with  the  facts  when  he  reads 
the  story  of  firearms  as  set  down  by  an  American 
covering  the  growth  of  the  gun  during  the  last 
two  hundred  years.  The  constant  recurrence  of 
American  names  and  inventions  in  the  record 
actually  grows  so  monotonous  that  the  casual 
reader  might  easily  decide  that  we  indulge  in  con- 
siderable "  Schwartzing  "  on  our  own  account. 
Such  a  critic,  however,  is  advised  to  go  to  the 
original  facts  for  verification  of  the  vital  part 
men  of  the  United  States  have  commanded  in 
the  weapon's  modern  progress. 

In  examining  the  development  of  the  important 
weapon  now  called  the  machine  gun  leading,  as 
it  has  done,  to  the  automatic  rifle,  American  names 
force  their  way  to  the  front  even  more  per- 
sistently than  before.  Indeed  it  is  conceded  by 
the  world  that  America  has  practically  monop- 
olized the  invention  and  improvement  of  rapid- 
fire  guns. 

Beginning  with  the  Gatling  gun,  invented  by 
Dr.  Gatling  of  Chicago,  Illinois,  during  the  Civil 
War,  down  through  the  list  of  Maxim,  Hotchkiss, 
Nordenf  eldt,  and  Gardner  guns,  each  revealing  ad- 
vantages over  their  successors,  we  come  in  more 
recent  days  to  the  weapons  invented  by  Browning 
and  Lewis,  which  seem  destined  for  a  time  at 


MACHINE  GUN  TO  AUTOMATIC  RIFLE     267 

least  to  have  the  field  to  themselves.  The  ma- 
chine guns  now  used  by  European  armies  are 
chiefly  variations  of  American  types. 

Shortly  after  1830  Samuel  Colt  worked  upon 
a  rapid-fire  gun  which  had  a  number  of  barrels 
arranged  in  a  circle  parallel  with  each  other,  so 
as  to  rotate  upon  a  spindle  when  the  firing 
hammer  was  drawn  back.  It  was,  of  course,  a 
muzzle-loader,  using  percussion  ignition.  Colt  did 
not  succeed  in  making  his  new  weapon  workable, 
but  in  1836  adapted  the  principle  to  his  rifle  and 
revolver,  changing  them  in  the  important  respect 
that  the  revolving  part  contained  the  powder  and 
ball,  while  a  single  barrel  was  used  for  the  passage 
of  the  successive  bullets.  As  we  have  seen,  the 
idea  was  not  new,  but  it  is  the  first  appearance 
of  the  principle  in  America. 

During  our  Civil  War  the  demand  for  faster- 
firing  small  arms  was  so  insistent  that  many  in- 
ventors turned  their  attention  to  the  production 
of  such  weapons,  among  the  number  Dr. 
Richard  J.  Gatling.  He  produced  the  Gatling 
gun,  which  was  used  occasionally  in  minor  com- 
bats in  the  later  days  of  the  great  struggle.  Our4 
military  men,  however,  thought  so  little  of  Gat- 
ling's  invention  that  the  inventor  was  obliged  to 
hire  his  own  men  to  go  with  the  machines  and 


268  THE  GUN  BOOK 

operate  them.  As  a  prophet  is  not  without  honor 
save  in  his  own  country,  Dr.  Gatling's  gun  gained 
attention  first  in  Europe,  rfmong  the  French. 

Gatling's  gun  was  a  breechloader,  using  pre- 
pared ammunition  with  metallic  rim-fire  shells.  It 
had  ten  barrels  arranged  parallel  with  each  other 
around  a  circle,  the  whole  group  turning  together 
upon  a  spindle,  as  in  Colt's  previous  model.  An 
attendant  at  the  rear  of  the  gun  turned  a  crank 
which  caused  the  barrels  to  pass  the  breech 
mechanism  successively,  the  top  one  being  fired 
while  the  others  were  having  their  empty  shells 
ejected  and  new  cartridges  inserted.  Though  so 
heavy  that  it  had  to  be  rolled  about  upon  a  car- 
riage, it  could  fire  several  hundred  shots  per  min- 
% 

ute,  and,  when  improved  sufficiently  to  become 
reliable  in  operation,  became  a  truly  famous  gun. 
Shortly  before  1870,  Napoleon  III,  anticipating 
a  war  with  Germany,  seized  the  ideas  of  Gatling 
and  secretly  equipped  his  armies  with  similar 
guns,  which  the  French  called  "Mitrailleuse." 
In  the  subsequent  contest  with  the  Germans  these 
guns  were  used  with  considerable  effect  at  times ; 
but  the  enemy  soon  learned  their  weaknesses  and 
succeeded  in  keeping  infantry  out  of  range  until 
artillery  could  be  brought  up  to  destroy  them 
at  a  distance.  Against  cannon  the  mitrailleuse 


MACHINE  GUN  TO  AUTOMATIC  RIFLE     269 

could  not  stand  on  account  of  the  difference  in 
range,  and  especially  when  the  Germans,  using 
breech-loading  field  pieces,  could  remain  behind 
their  guns  to  load  and  fire  them,  using  the  gun 
and  carriage  as  shield  against  small-arm  missiles. 
On  the  whole,  the  new  weapon  proved  a  severe 
disappointment  to  the  French,  though  chiefly  be- 
cause they  used  it  as  a  substitute  for  artillery, 
which  function  it  was  never  intended  to  perform. 
To  Hiram  Maxim,  American  born  but  later  of 
British  citizenship,  goes  the  credit  for  making 
the  first  successful  automatic  rapid-firing  gun. 
His  ideas  were  revolutionary,  for  he  not  only 
employed  a  single  barrel  in  place  of  many,  but  he 
made  his  gun  load  and  fire  itself  without  more 
human  intervention  than  the  touch  of  a  finger  at 
the  trigger  to  set  it  going.  The  Maxim  gun, 
invented  in  1883,  was  six  years  later  officially 
adopted  by  the  British  army,  that  Government 
at  the  same  time  conferring  knighthood  upon  the 
inventor  as  a  partial  reward  for  his  achievement. 
A  verbal  description  of  the  Maxim  quick-firer  is 
not  necessary  here,  as  the  manner  of  its  working 
may  easily  be  made  out  by  an  examination  of  the 
accompanying  illustration.  For  motive  power  in 
its  operation  the  force  of  recoil  is  used,  by  means 
of  which  the  gun,  when  the  trigger  is  once  pulled 


270 


THE  GUN  BOOK 


for  the  first  shot,  ejects  the  empty  shell,  inserts 
a  loaded  one  into  the  firing  chamber,  and  fires 
again.  A  belt  contains  the  ammunition  and  feeds 


raph  ir 


i  Kadei  &  Herbert,  New  York. 


FIG.  70. — FIRST  AUTOMATIC  MACHINE  GUN,  WITH  HIRAM  MAXIM, 

ITS  INVENTOR 
Hiram  Maxim  is  here  shown  testing  out  the  first  model  of  his 

invention.     It  was  while  testing  this  machine  gun  that  Mr. 

Maxim  became  deaf. 

it  to  the  gun  by  sliding  transversely  at  the  breech. 
It  was  originally  so  heavy  that  it  was  mounted 
on  wheels,  to  be  pushed  about  by  its  operators; 
but  the  models  now  in  use  are  light  enough  to 


MACHINE  GUN  TO  AUTOMATIC  RIFLE     271 


272  THE  GUN  BOOK 

be  carried  by  two  men.  The  weapon  fires  three 
to  five  hundred  shots  per  minute,  or  faster  than 
a  man  can  count,  and  is  even  today  a  gun  highly 
valued  in  European  armies. 

Maxim's  idea  for  using  recoil  as  the  actuating 
force  for  a  machine  gun  originated  in  his  mind 
when  a  boy  by  having  his  shoulder  bruised  by 
the  impact  of  a  large-bore  gun  while  shooting. 
Here  was  energy  not  only  going  to  waste,  but 
doing  harm  to  the  gunner  and  to  his  shot.  "  Could 
not  that  power  be  put  to  work  operating  the  gun, 
thus  relieving  the  firer's  shoulder  from  shock,  his 
arms  from  labor,  and  at  the  same  time  speeding 
up  the  delivery  of  bullets  from  the  muzzle?" 
Such  was  the  problem  which  kept  presenting 
itself  in  the  mind  of  the  youthful  Maxim  for  many 
years  after,  until  at  last  his  hands  gave  form  to 
the  thought,  the  wonderful  gun  resulting.  Thus 
great  oaks  from  little  acorns  grow. 

After  the  pronounced  success  of  the  Maxim  gun 
had  been  revealed  many  other  automatics  came 
into  existence  both  in  this  country  and  abroad, 
but  none  showing  any  basic  difference  until  1898, 
when  the  American,  Browning,  cam'e  forward  with 
a  rapid-fire  weapon,  using  a  new  principle  for  its 
operation.  In  Browning's  opinion  a  machine  gun 
lighter  than  the  Maxim  could  be  made  by  utilizing, 


MACHINE  GUN  TO  AUTOMATIC  RIFLE     273 


^  _   t   eg 


p.''- 


£  £ 


274  THE  GUN  BOOK 

not  recoil,  but  the  expansive  force  of  the  gases 
in  the  gun  barrel  to  operate  the  mechanism.  With 
a  proper  arrangement  of  cylinder  and  piston  much 
the  same  as  those  in  the  ordinary  gasoline  engine, 
using  powder  gas  instead  of  that  from  burning 
petroleum,  the  thing,  he  was  convinced,  could  be 
done.  The  result  of  his  experiments  was  the  ma- 
chine gun,  afterward  named  the  Colt's,  from  the 
manufacturer. 

Eemembering  the  tremendous  gas  pressure  cre- 
ated in  the  gun  tube  during  a  shot,  we  may  readily 
believe  Browning  when  he  says  that  his  problem 
was  not  the  getting  of  enough  power  to  operate 
the  little  engine  he  proposed  to  attach  to  his  gun 
barrel,  but  rather  in  keeping  the  actuating  force 
within  reasonable  limits.  He  therefore  drilled  a 
hole  almost  microscopic  in  size  through  the  gun 
barrel  near  its  muzzle,  which  allowed  the  escape 
of  a  slight  portion  of  powder  gas  into  his  aux-< 
iliary  cylinder.  There  it  pressed  down  a  piston 
which  in  turn  tilted  a  lever  and  the  mechanism 
at  the  breech  thus  set  in  motion  ejected  the  empty 
shell,  inserted  the  new  cartridge  from  the  belt, 
and  fired  it,  somewhat  as  in  the  Maxim  gun.  With 
this  information  the  detailed  picture  of  the  work- 
ings of  the  Colt  gun  can  be  made  out  more  easily 
than  by  a  description  in  words. 


MACHINE  GUN  TO  AUTOMATIC  RIFLE      275 

One  of  the  chief  problems  in  devising  quick- 
firing  guns  with  a  single  barrel  is  to  find  ways 
and  means  of  carrying  off  the  tremendous  heat 
generated  by  the  burning  powder.  When  a  gun 
barrel  grows  very  hot  the  tube  expands  so  much 
that  the  bullet  no  longer  fits,  thus  allowing 
gas  leakage  around  the  sides  of  the  missile 
and  at  the  same  time  making  useless  the  rifling 
spirals.  The  gun  must,  therefore,  be  kept  rea- 
sonably cool,  or  it  will  be  worthless.  In  obedi- 
ence to  this  requirement,  Maxim  fixed  around  the 
barrel  of  his  gun  a  water  jacket  holding  nearly  a 
gallon,  which  when  filled  with  water  kept  the  gun 
cool  enough  for  operation  under  all  ordinary 
conditions. 

This  water-cooling  feature  of  the  Maxim  gun 
is  one  of  its  great  handicaps.  With  each  thou- 
sand successive  shots  after  the  gun  is  hot,  about 
a  pint  and  a  half  of  the  fluid  is  evaporated,  thus 
requiring  the  soldier  to  carry  not  only  the  extra 
weight  of  the  water  in  the  gun,  but  a  supply  to 
keep  up  with  the  loss,  if  any,  in  action.  Browning 
succeeded  in  avoiding  the  use  of  the  water  cooler 
by  placing  around  the  barrel  of  his  gun  a  number 
of  flanges,  which,  by  increasing  the  surface  of 
the  outside  of  the  barrel,  allow  more  air  to  come 
in  contact  with  the  metal  to  absorb  its  heat 


276  THE  GUN  BOOK 

Though  air  cooling  is  not  as  efficient  as  cooling 
by  the  use  of  water,  yet  in  the  opinion  of  many 
military  experts  the  other  advantages  gained  in 
the  Browning  system  more  than  offset  that  ob- 
jection. Of  course,  in  ordinary  use,  even  in  the 
heat  of  battle,  the  gun  is  seldom  called  upon  to 
deliver  shots  by  the  thousand  in  a  steady  stream, 
but  to  provide  for  such  a  crisis  the  Colt  gun  is 
supplied  with  an  extra  barrel  which  can  be  at- 
tached in  a  few  seconds. 

As  we  are  tracing  only  the  development  of  new 
principles  in  gunnery  we  will  not  stop  to  describe 
the  Gardner,  Hotchkiss,  and  Benet-Mercier  quick- 
firers  (the  latter  a  French  production),  which 
have  been  and  are  now  being  used  under  those 
and  other  names.  They  differ  from  the  Maxim 
and  Colt  guns  in  minor  details  alone.  But  the 
recently  invented  Lewis  gun  gives  us  something 
new  in  this  field  which  deserves  attention. 

Like  the  Browning  gun,  that  invented  by 
Colonel  I.  H.  Lewis  of  the  United  States  army, 
and  which  bears  his  name,  is  operated  by  gas 
taken  from  the  barrel  through  an  orifice,  in  the 
usual  manner  of  weapons  of  that  type.  The 
operating  parts  are  shown  in  the  accompanying 
diagram.  One  of  its  distinctive  features  is  the 
method  by  which  the  ammunition  is  fed  to  it, 


MACHINE  GUN  TO  AUTOMATIC  RIFLE     277 

for  instead  of  the  usual  transverse  belt  the  car- 
tridges are  placed  in  compartments  in  the  top 
of  a  flat,  circular,  plate-like  magazine  holding 
forty-seven  rounds  in  two  layers.  In  this  respect 
the  Lewis  gun  is  really  an  adaptation  of  that  of 


Copyright  by  the  Western  Newspaper  Union  Photo  Service. 

FIG.  73. — BENET-MERCIER  MACHINE  GUN 

This  gun  uses  long  metal  clips  instead  of  belts  with  which  to 
feed  cartridges  to  the  mechanism. 

Colt  with  its  revolving  cylinder.  The  magazine, 
when  set  on  a  spindle  at  the  breech  of  the  gun, 
revolves  as  the  gun  is  fired,  bringing  fresh 
ammunition  to  the  firing  chamber.  Only  about 
two  seconds  are  required  to  remove  the  emptied 
magazine  and  replace  it  with  a  full  one.  Though 
the  whole  weapon  weighs  but  twenty-seven 


278  THE  GUN  BOOK 

pounds,  it  is  capable  of  firing  as  high  as  seven 
hundred  and  fifty  rounds  per  minute.  The  Lewis 
gun  is  being  used  in  all  of  the  Allied  armies  now 
in  France,  and  has  been  found  especially  adapted, 
by  reason  of  its  low  weight  and  reliability,  to 
use  by  soldiers  flying  and  fighting  in  aeroplanes. 
(See  Frontispiece.) 

The  Lewis  gun  is  of  especial  interest,  however, 
by  reason  of  the  cooling  device  it  carries.  Brown- 
ing, as  we  have  seen,  caused  his  gun  to  stay  cool 
by  means  of  corrugations  encircling  its  barrel, 
thereby  exposing  much  heated  surface  to  the  sur- 
rounding air.  Colonel  Lewis  added  similar  in- 
creased surface  to  his  gun  barrel  by  running  thin 
plates  of  metal  lengthwise  along  the  tube.  But 
to  bring  still  more  air  in  contact  with  the  barrel, 
he  devised  an  apparatus  whereby  the  powder 
gases  rushing  out  at  the  muzzle  would  produce  a 
strong  draft  of  air  upon  the  barrel.  This  device 
appears  in  the  picture,  consisting  of  a  large  hollow 
jacket  around  the  forward  part  of  the  gun,  taper- 
ing in  size  in  front  of  the  muzzle.  To  the  mouth 
of  the  barrel  is  fixed  a  nozzle  through  which  mis- 
sile and  burned  gases  pass  in  firing,  of  course  at 
great  speed.  The  propulsive  gases  the  instant 
they  emerge  from  the  muzzle  widen  out,  increas- 
ing their  volume,  but  still  proceeding  rapidly  for-  , 


MACHINE  GUN  TO  AUTOMATIC  RIFLE     279 


280  THE  GUN  BOOK 

ward.  This  action  creates  a  partial  vacuum  in- 
side the  air  jacket  at  the  rear  of  the  gun  muzzle, 
causing  a  current  of  air,  coming  from  behind,  to 
sweep  along  the  barrel  and  so  carry  off  its  heat. 
The  draft  thus  created  reaches  a  velocity  of  sev- 
enty miles  an  hour  when  the  weapon  is  operated 
at  full  capacity,  and  serves  to  maintain  the  de- 
sired low  temperature,  except  under  the  most  ex- 
traordinary conditions  of  rapid  fire. 

Those  familiar  with  the  ancient  "water-blast" 
apparatus  used  in  early  iron  furnaces  will  readily 
understand  how  the  Lewis  gun  cooler  works,  and 
where  its  inventor  got  his  idea.  In  order  to  melt 
iron  ore  in  quantity  great  heat  is  required,  this 
calling  for  forced  draft  to  bring  the  necessary 
oxygen  into  the  furnace  fire.  Engines  and  fans 
were,  of  course,  unknown  in  olden  times,  so  the 
ingenious  iron  maker  produced  the  air  blast  he 
needed  in  the  following  manner :  the  furnace  was 
located  near  a  plentiful  source  of  water,  and 
below  it,  so  that  the  fluid  could  be  brought  to  the 
furnace  in  pipes  and  under  pressure;  then  by 
admitting  confined  water  from  a  small  pipe  into 
a  larger  one,  the  resulting  jets  and  sprays  of  the 
liberated  stream  occupied  the  space  inside  the  big 
pipe,  and  falling,  drove  the  air  ahead  of  it,  pro- 
ducing a  partial  vacuum  above.  This  upper  space 


MACHINE  GUN  TO  AUTOMATIC  RIFLE     281 


in  the  big  pipe  was  connected  with  the  furnace, 
and  as  the  stream  of  water  continued  to  flow,  a 
steady  draft  of  air  was  drawn  through  the  fire, 


FIG.  75. — The  water  blast,  formerly  used  in  smelting  furnaces, 
utilized  falling  water  to  produce  air  suction.  In  the  type 
shown  the  water  coming  through  the  pipe  A  under  com- 
pression sprays  out  of  the  nozzle;  the  falling  drops,  each 
driving  air  ahead  of  it,  produce  a  draft  through  the  furnace 
fire  passing  in  through  the  pipe,  B.  Observation  of  the  strong 
air  currents  existing  at  the  foot  of  all  high  waterfalls  proba- 
bly suggested  this  ancient  invention. 

producing  the  high  heat  desired.  Examination 
of  the  drawing  of  the  water  blast  and  comparison 
of  its  parts  with  those  of  Colonel  Lewis's  gun 


THE  GUN  BOOK 


cooler  will  make  the  similarity  clear  at  a  glance, 
the  one  using  water  under  pressure  to  accomplish 
the  purpose,  and  the  other  gas  at  high  velocity. 
While  it  is  hardly  true  that  there  is  no  new  thing 


Copyright  by  the  Western  Newspaper  Union  Photo  Service. 

FIG.  76. — BBOWNING  HEAVY  MACHINE  GUN 

This  gun  is  fed  from  a  belt  of  250  rounds  of  cartridges.  It 
weighs  34%  pounds  with  water  jacket  filled  and  is  operated 
from  a  tripod.  This  model  has  fired  20,000  shots  in  forty- 
eight  minutes.  While  this  is  called  the  heavy  Browning 
gun,  it  must  not  be  confused  with  heavy  guns  of  other  types, 
some  of  which  now  in  use  in  Europe  weigh  250  pounds  and 
are  carried  about  upon  an  automobile  or  a  horse. 

under  the  sun,  such  adaptations  of  old  ideas  to  new 
uses  show  that  there  are  fewer  real  novelties  than 
we  sometimes  suspect. 

Much  like  its  predecessors  is  the  new  Browning 
machine  gun  which  has  appeared  within  a  year 
and  which  is  now  being  manufactured  in  large 


MACHINE  GUN  TO  AUTOMATIC  RIFLE      283 

quantities  for  use  by  our  soldiers  in  France.  It 
is  of  the  water-cooled  type,  using  recoil  as  its 
motive  power,  and  weighs  twenty-two  and  one- 
half  pounds,  to  which  must  be  added  ten  pounds 
of  water,  or  a  little  over  a  gallon,  when  the  cooling 
chamber  is  filled.  Its  ammunition  is  also  fed  to 
it  by  a  belt  which  is  peculiar  to  the  new  gun,  in 
that  it  is  made  wholly  of  cotton,  instead  of  the 
metal  or  part  metal  hitherto  employed  for  that 
purpose.  The  chief  merits  of  the  new  gun,  how- 
ever, lie  in  its  simplicity  and  reliability,  for  it 
has  fewer  main  parts  than  have  ever  been  used 
before  in  a  like  weapon.  Thus  it  is  easily  manu- 
factured, has  great  endurance,  and  is  less  likely 
to  get  out  of  order  during  the  stress  of  battle. 
Six  hundred  shots  per  minute  are  possible  from 
the  gun;  while  in  the  Government  test  it  fired 
twenty  thousand  shots  in  succession  with  a  loss 
of  only  four  and  one-half  seconds  for  stoppages, 
part  of  this  delay  being  due,  too,  to  defective 
cartridges.  While  we  are  permitted  to  present 
a  picture  of  the  exterior  of  this  remarkable  gun, 
a  more  detailed  description  is  rightly  forbidden 
at  this  time  by  our  authorities,  to  the  end  that  our 
national  enemies  may  not  profit  by  the  in- 
formation. 

If  the  reader  is  by  now  asking  himself  why,  in 


284  THE  GUN  BOOK 

a  book  devoted  primarily  to  the  hand  gun,  so 
much  space  is  being  given  to  machine  guns,  the 
answer  is  at  once  forthcoming.  It  will  be  re- 
membered from  a  preceding  chapter  how  the 
Spanish  musketeers  after  the  sixteenth  century 
advanced  upon  the  battle-field  with  two  men  car- 
rying a  single  gun  of  the  weight  of  forty  pounds 
or  more,  and  how  our  present  light  hard-shooting 
rifle  is  descended  directly  from  this  cumbersome 
ancestor.  It  has  been  pointed  out,  too,  that  the 
standard  hand  gun  of  a  few  years  hence  promises 
to  be  the  automatic  rifle.  The  connection  between 
these  two  facts  is  that  just  as  our  modern  arm 
came  into  being  through  refinements  added  to 
the  clumsy  musket,  so  the  machine  gun  by  one 
improvement  after  another  is  coming  close  to  the 
point  where  both  soldier  and  sportsman  will 
adopt  the  automatic  weapon  for  his  ordinary  pur- 
poses. The  truth  of  this  statement  will  be  borne 
out  by  a  casual  glance  at  the  revolutionary  char- 
acter of  the  weapon  next  to  be  mentioned — the 
Browning  automatic  rifle. 

But  let  us  pause  for  a  moment  in  our  examina- 
tion of  machine  guns  to  say  a  word  about  this 
man  Browning,  whose  name  appears  so  often  in 
connection  with  the  firearms  of  the  last  twenty- 
five  years.  His  Christian  name,  John  M.,  was 


MACHINE  GUN  TO  AUTOMATIC  RIFLE      285 

given  him  in  Ogden,  Utah,  where  he  was  born 
sixty-two  years  ago  of  Mormon  parents.  Young 
Browning  began  inventing  useful  improvements 
in  guns  at  tfie  early  age  of  fourteen  years,  by 
whittling  out  of  wood  the  breech-operating  mech- 
anism afterward  adopted  for,  and  now  used  in 
the  famous  Winchester  repeating  rifle ;  from  that 
time  down  to  the  present  day  this  Western  genius 
has  continued  to  produce  one  device  after  another 
for  the  improvement  of  the  gun  until  there  is 
hardly  a  modern  rifle,  shotgun,  pistol,  or  machine 
gun  that  does  not  embody  one  or  more  of  his 
ideas.  Growing  up  as  he  did  in  the  remote  fron- 
tier, Browning's  youthful  environment  was  satu- 
rated with  guns  and  the  talk  of  guns,  for  firearms 
were  almost  as  necessary  to  him  and  his  people  as 
the  very  clothes  they  wore.  But  as  further 
stimulus  in  the  study  of  gunnery,  Browning  had 
the  advantage  of  being  assistant  to  his  father  in 
the  little  gun  shop  and  store  by  which  the  family 
gained  its  livelihood  for  many  years  after  reach- 
ing the  village  at  the  head  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake. 
The  familiarity  with  firearms  and  the  knowledge 
of  the  metals,  tools,  and  processes  used  in  their 
making,  which  Browning  in  this  situation  ac- 
quired, gave  such  fostering  opportunities  to  his 
exceptional  natural  talents,  that  it  is  a  moderate 


286 


THE  GUN  BOOK 


statement  to  say  that  no  one  man  has  ever  con- 
tributed more  to  the  development  of  the  hand  gun 
than  John  M.  Browning. 

Browning's  culminating  achievement  seems  at 


Copyright  by  t'le  Western  Newspaper  Union  Photo  Service. 

FIG.  77. — BROWNING  AUTOMATIC  RIFLE 

As  used  in  the  shoulder  position.  Three  hundred  and  fifty  shots 
may  be  fired,  with  magazine  pauses  of  2^  seconds  between 
bursts  of  forty,  before  the  gun  becomes  too  hot  to  operate. 
Weight,  15  pounds.  Our  men  are  also  being  taught  to  fire 
this  gun  with  deadly  precision  "  from  the  hip " — that  is, 
while  being  held  at  the  side,  the  aiming  being  done  by 
marking  the  course  of  the  bullets  as  they  strike  the  ground 
ahead.  By  this  method  the  firer  can  deliver  shots  with 
surprising  accuracy  while  walking  or  running  forward. 

present  to  be  the  automatic  rifle  he  has  just  pro- 
duced and  turned  over  to  his  country,  for  her  use 
in  preserving  her  rights  and  liberties  now  so 
treacherously  assailed  by  the  Prussian  Aristoc- 


MACHINE  GUN  TO  AUTOMATIC  RIFLE     287 

racy.  And  surely  the  gun  has  never  set  out  on 
a  more  righteous  mission  than  that  of  this  new 
weapon,  which  promises  such  aid  in  restoring 
justice  to  the  world.  As  with  Browning's  ma- 
chine gun,  we  are  not  allowed  to  present  the  de- 
tails of  his  automatic  rifle,  but  a  picture  of  its 
outward  appearance  is  permissible,  as  well  as 
the  telling  of  a  few  of  its  leading  merits. 

In  the  first  place  the  new  arm  weighs  but  fifteen 
pounds,  thus  enabling  the  soldier  to  carry  it  and 
aim  it  from  his  shoulder  almost  as  easily  as  the 
ordinary  service  rifle,  much  of  its  lightness  being 
due  to  the  fact  that  it  is  of  the  air-cooled,  gas- 
operated  type.  The  bearer  can  with  it  fire  a  single 
shot,  or  more  as  he  wishes,  by  pulling  the  trigger 
for  each  shot;  or  if  he  desires,  he  may  let  the 
automatic  mechanism  operate  the  gun,  giving  a 
firing  speed  of  twenty  shots  in  two  and  one-half 
seconds.  The  cartridges  are  fed  to  the  breech 
in  clips  of  twenty,  the  empty  shells  being  thrown 
to  one  side,  the  .30-caliber  ammunition  of  the 
service  rifle  being  used.  But  besides  its  light 
weight,  the  chief  merit  of  the  gun  is  its  unusual 
simplicity,  which  permits  of  its  use  in  the  field  by 
the  non-expert,  and  adds  to  its  reliability,  as  well 
as  to  the  low  cost  of  manufacture.  Only  one 
small  wrench  is  needed  for  use  in  taking  apart  or 


288  THE  GUN  BOOK 

reassembling  the  gun ;  and  these  features,  coupled 
with  the  weapon's  ability  to  go  on  shooting  after 
being  subjected  to  immersion  in  dust  and  sand, 
seem  to  indicate  that  at  last  we  have  a  true  hand 
gun  of  the  automatic  type,  light  and  sturdy  enough 
for  use  by  the  common  soldier — a  weapon  that 
has  been  long  sought. 

In  reading  and  hearing  of  the  battles  and 
aeroplane  duels  now  going  on  in  Europe,  how 
monotonous  becomes  the  expression:  "Then  the 
machine  gun  jammed  and  went  out  of  commis- 
sion," the  sequel  frequently  being  a  tale  of  death 
and  disaster.  It  is  only  when  we  realize  the 
seriousness  of  this  distressing  fault  of  the  old- 
style  machine  gun  that  we  can  appreciate  the  vir- 
tues of  the  new  weapon  with  which  Browning 
has  presented  us.  The  theory  he  followed  in  its 
construction  was  that  a  high  degree  of  exactness 
in  framing  the  parts  was  undesirable,  for  this 
meant-  that  with  undue  heating  the  precisely 
fitting  members  would  refuse  to  act  together;  or 
if  the  weapon  should  receive  a  bump,  or  if  bits 
of  foreign  matter  like  dirt  should  enter  the 
mechanism,  the  gun  would  become  hampered  in 
operation,  if  not  forced  to  quit  working  entirely. 
And  not  alone  is  great  precision  a  detriment  to 
the  gun  itself  under  trying  conditions  in  the  field, 


MACHINE  GUN  TO  AUTOMATIC  RIFLE      289 

but  a  weapon  so  made  is  immensely  more  difficult 
to  produce.  With  these  two  important  facts  in 
mind,  Browning  has  made  his  weapons,  both  the 
machine  gun  and  the  automatic  rifle,  with  parts 
loasely  engaged  wherever  possible,  confining  ac- 
curate workmanship  only  to  those  members  and 
parts  where  precision  is  imperative,  and  which, 
as  he  has  proven,  are  surprisingly  few  in  number. 
Hence  the  American  soldier  is  enabled  to  enter 
the  war  with  quick-firing  weapons  not  only  so 
light  in  weight  as  to  be  easily  portable,  but  so 
trustworthy  in  operation  that  his  courage  is  but- 
tressed by  the  knowledge  that  his  gun  will  stand 
by  him  unfalteringly  through  thick  and  through 
thin. 

In  1914,  in  the  city  of  Serajevo,  in  Austria,  an 
Archduke  was  struck  down  by  a  pistol  bullet,  and 
this  assassination  furnished  the  Kaiser  his  pre- 
text for  beginning  the  war  which  has  deluged, 
Europe  and  Asia  with  blood.  That  fateful  bullet 
was  fired  from  the  pistol  invented  by  John  M. 
Browning.  When  the  curtain  falls  upon  the  har- 
rowing scenes  of  this  world  disaster  we  hope  to 
see  the  Prussian  tyrants  overwhelmed,  their  mis- 
guided people  repentant,  and  the  rights  of  the 
little  man  and  the  little  nation  restored  so  se? 
curely  that  peace  with  liberty  will  be  founded  as 


290  THE  GUN  BOOK 

upon  a  rock.  If  this  cherished  end  comes  about, 
as  we  have  reason  to  believe  it  will,  not  a  little 
of  the  credit  will  be  due  to  the  superior  imple- 
ments of  war  devised  by  the  distinguished  Mor- 
mon inventor  who  created  the  weapon  which  set 
in  motion  the  whole  train  of  sorrows. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

HOW  THE  NEW  WEAPONS  HAVE  AFFECTED 
THE  ART  OF  WAR 

THOUGH  the  science  of  projecting  missiles  from 
guns  has  greatly  advanced,  the  changes  which  the 
new  weapons  have  wrought  in  the  art  of  war  are 
less  than  we  sometimes  suppose.  Remembering 
that  strategy  is,  roughly  speaking,  the  planning 
of  the  battle  before  it  begins,  while  tactics  deals 
chiefly  with  the  methods  of  carrying  out  those 
plans  when  the  armies  have  been  brought  face 
to  face,  a  survey  of  the  present  European  cam- 
paigns reveals  the  fact  that  it  is  the  latter  branch 
of  military  art  that  has  been  most  affected  by  the 
introduction  of  better  guns. 

From  time  immemorial  the  main  object  of  op- 
posing generals,  as  has  been  already  pointed  out, 
is  not  so  much  to  kill  the  soldiers  of  their  ad- 
versaries as  to  disorganize  them,  crumple  them 
up  into  mobs,  and  so  capture  men,  weapons,  and 
supplies.  Mere  killing  takes  too  much  time  and 
is  a  game  at  which  two  can  play,  while  reducing 

291 


THE  GUN  BOOK 

an  army  to  a  confused  rabble  robs  it  almost  en- 
tirely of  its  fighting  power.  Cold-blooded  trading 
-of  man  for  man  is  the  resort  only  of  stupid  gen- 
erals or  of  dire  necessity. 

When  two  armies  are  about  to  confront  each 
other  for  hostilities  there  have  always  been  two 
general  methods  by  which  one  of  them  can,  with- 
out excessive  losses,  throw  the  other  into  con- 
fusion; one  of  these  methods  being  the  frontal 
attack,  the  other  the  flanking  movement.  In  the 
parlance  of  our  American  football  game  these 
maneuvers  are  known  as  "bucking  the  line"  in 
one  instance,  and  "running  around  the  end"  in 
the  other.  In  the  frontal  attack  the  enemy  is 
engaged  with  especial  vigor  at  orie  or  more  points 
in  his  line,  in  the  hope  of  breaking  through  and 
so  being  able  to  assail  the  foe  from  side  and  rear 
where  he  is  exceedingly  vulnerable.  In  the  flank 
movement  the  object  of  the  attacker  is  to  bring 
a  force  suddenly  against  or  around  the  end  of 
the  enemy's  line  and  in  this  manner  gain  a  van- 
tage point  at  his  side  or  rear.  Napoleon  em- 
ployed both  of  the  theories  of  attack  with  con- 
summate skill,  and  in  our  Civil  War  each  plan 
was  used  time  and  again  by  the  opposing  forces. 
In  the  Battle  of  Gettysburg  Lee  battered  a  sec- 
tion of  the  Union  line  with  artillery,  and  then 


EFFECT  OF  THE  NEW  WEAPONS   293 

launched  Pickett's  Brigade  against  the  front  so 
weakened.  More  successful  was  Jackson's  secret 
march  around  the  end  of  the  Federal  line  at  the 
Battle  of  Chancellorsville,  which  stands  as  a 
classic  example  of  the  flank  attack. 

Why,  then,  do  we  see  in  Europe  no  "  end  runs," 
but  only  the  plunging  of  huge  forces  headlong  into 
the  enemy's  lines  in  frontal  attacks?  The  answer 
lies  not  in  the  fact  that  weapons  of  increased 
deadliness  are  being  employed,  but  rather  in  the 
enormous  size  of  the  armies  now  in  the  field. 

Look  back  at  the  Battle  of  New  Orleans,  for 
instance,  where  the  defenders  lay  behind  earth- 
works while  the  attackers  advanced  in  front  and 
in  the  open.  Packenham  probably  was  not  aware 
of  the  efficiency  of  the  American  rifle  and  rifleman, 
but  even  if  he  had  been,  there  was  no  choice  of 
strategy  for  him  because  on  each  side  Jackson's 
army  was  protected  by  waters  deep  and  wide. 
The  Americans,  though  outmatched  in  both  num- 
bers and  military  skill,  were  still  sufficiently 
numerous  to  permit  their  line  to  reach  entirely 
across  the  neck  of  land  the  British  had  to  pass 
in  order  to  reach  New  Orleans,  their  objective, 
thus  compelling  the  invader  to  attack  in  front  or 
not  at  all. 

On  a  small  scale  the  Battle  of  New  Orleans  is 


THE  GUN  BOOK 

a  counterpart  of  the  situation  existing  in  the 
principal  campaigns  being  waged  in  Europe.  In 
Russia,  France,  and  Italy,  owing  to  the  num- 
ber of  men  engaged,  the  battle  lines  have  been  so 
extended  as  to  permit  the  flanks  to  be  protected 
by  some  natural  obstacle  such  as  deep  waters, 
high  mountains,  or  bottomless  swamps;  or,  in 
place  thereof,  the  forbidden  boundaries  of  some 
neutral  nation.  Under  such  circumstances  the 
European  general  finds  himself  in  the  same  pre- 
dicament to  which  Packenham  was  reduced  at 
New  Orleans ;  that  is,  he  is  confined  to  the  frontal 
attack  in  order  to  make  any  advance. 

During  the  invasion  of  France,  the  German,  von 
Kluck,  in  trying  to  outflank  Joffre's  army,  was 
himself  outflanked  by  a  separate  French  force 
advancing  from  Paris.  The  Germans  thereupon 
retreated,  but  slowly  enough  to  permit  the  dig- 
ging at  their  rear  of  a  line  of  trenches,  which 
was  ultimately  extended  from  Switzerland  to  the 
sea.  To  these  trenches  they  withdrew,  followed 
closely  by  their  French  and  British  adversaries. 
The  latter,  being  unable  to  turn  either  German 
flank,  though  General  French  tried  manfully  to 
do  so  on  the  west  with  his  small  British  army, 
could  assail  the  Germans  only  by  advancing  upon 
their  line  from  the  front.  This  they  tried  again, 


EFFECT  OF  THE  NEW  WEAPONS 

and  again,  unsuccessfully  and  with  terrific  losses. 
The  Germans  were  well  supplied  with  machine 
guns,  and  one  of  these  operated  by  a  single  man 
well  protected  or  well  concealed,  is  deemed  to  be 
equal  to  a  hundred  men  armed  with  ordinary 
rifles,  advancing  in  the  open.  This  means  that 
one  hundred  German  machine  gunners  firing  from 
their  trenches  were  equivalent  to  ten  thousand' 
attacking  French  and  British — a  superiority 
which  the  latter  forces  could  not  overcome.  The 
Allies  thereupon  dug  themselves  into  the  ground 
confronting  the  Germans  to  gain  protection,  to 
be  the  better  able  to  resist  a  renewed  attack,  and 
last  but  not  least,  to  gain  time  in  which  to  con- 
sider what  next  was  to  be  done.  They  were  face 
to  face  with  the  enigma  of  how  to  make  a  suc- 
cessful advance  in  frontal  attack  against  the  ma- 
chine gun,  a  problem  not  yet  wholly  solved  after 
four  years  of  fighting. 

The  only  recent  example  of  war  on  a  large 
scale  to  which  the  puzzled  generals  of  the  Allies 
could  turn  for  the  lessons  of  experience  was  the 
Russo-Japanese  conflict  in  Manchuria;  but  not 
much  of  value  was  to  be  learned  there  because 
the  little  brown  man  had  overthrown  the  bearded 
Slav  chiefly  by  means  of  successful  flank  move- 
ments. The  German  line  being  in  much  the  same 


296  THE  GUN  BOOK 

situation  as  a  city  to  be  besieged  when  encircled 
by  fortifications,  it  was  early  seen  that  artillery 
and  explosive  shells  were  likely  to  prove  the  sole 
means  of  driving  the  Germans  from  their  strong-  • 
holds  and  force  them  to  fight  in  the  open,  and 
therefore  on  more  equal  terms.  This  conclusion 
inaugurated  the  tremendous  blasting  operations 
we  have  since  witnessed,  in  which  cannon  in  num- 
ber and  effectiveness  unheard  of  before  have  been 
employed  in  preparing  the  way  for  advances  by 
infantry.  In  principle,  however,  the  methods 
thus  employed  do  not  differ  from  those  of  Lee 
at  Gettysburg. 

Preparation  by  artillery  for  infantry  advances, 
however,  turned  out  to  be  less  simple  than  at  first 
supposed.  While  the  huge  projectiles  which  the 
Allied  armies  poured  lavishly  upon  the  German 
trenches  smashed  the  earthworks  and  drove  their 
occupants  into  their  deep  caves,  still  enough  ma- 
chine guns  and  gunners  always  survived  the 
storm  to  enable  the  defenders,  when  the  fire  lifted, 
to  emerge  from  their  dens  and  inflict  severe  pun- 
ishment upon  the  unprotected  soldiers  advancing. 
To  make  the  difficulty  of  such  attacks  all  the 
greater,  the  wily  German  invented  the  "machine 
gun  nest,"  a  concrete  shelter  apart  from  the 
trenches,  so  hidden  as  to  be  unseen  by  aeroplane 


EFFECT  OF  THE  NEW  WEAPONS  297 

observers  and  vulnerable  only  to  direct  hit  by] 
a  large  projectile.  Some  of  these  nests  are  even, 
made  with  small  conning  towers  which  rise  out 
of  the  ground  at  the  critical  moment  the  oppos- 
ing infantry  appears,  when  the  machine  guns  in- 
side spit  out  deadly  mis-siles  by  the  thousands. 
To  meet  this  new  German  invention  the  British 
produced  their  tanks,  those  crawling  armored 
vehicles  which  carry  guns  of  considerable  size, 
but  which  are  proof  against  impact  of  machine- 
gun  bullets. 

So  dangerous  are  machine  guns,  protected  and 
concealed,  that  before  an  infantry  attack  neither 
side  hesitates  to  send  shells  by  the  hundred  into 
a  spot  of  ground  where  the  existence  of  one  is 
suspected.  But  until  recently  the  machine  gun 
has  been  useful  in  defense  alone,  being  too  heavy 
to  be  readily  carried  and  used  by  the  soldier  while 
making  an  advance.  The  French  and  Germans, 
however,  are  now  using  light  automatic  guns 
weighing  a  little  over  twenty  pounds,  which 
soldiers  are  taught  to  carry  and  shoot  in  charging 
trenches  of  the  enemy ;  while  the  British  are  using 
the  Lewis  gun  for  the  same  purpose.  All  of  these 
guns  are  giving  good  results,  though  they  are  not 
so  efficient  as  when  fixed  to  the  tripods  or  bases 
which  they  are  really  meant  to  use  in  action.  But 


298  THE  GUN  BOOK 

for  the  soldier  walking  or  running  the  new 
Browning  automatic  rifle  promises  to  give  a  firing 
power  far  beyond  that  of  any  such  weapon  now 
in  use. 

The  advance  of  infantry  upon  the  modern 
battle-field  is  conducted  substantially  as  follows: 
the  artillery,  light  and  heavy,  pour  projectiles 
upon  the  opposing  trenches  for  hours,  sometimes 
for  days,  before  the  attack  is  started,  destroying1 
machine-gun  emplacements,  tearing  up  trenches, 
and  spreading  heavy,  noxious  gases  over  the 
enemy's  zone.  Then  at  a  set  moment  the  infantry 
in  concert  emerge  from  their  own  trenches  and 
start  forward  at  a  pace  carefully  calculated  be- 
forehand. As  the  attackers  approach  the  enemy's 
line  where  the  explosive  shells  are  dropping,  the 
artillerymen  at  the  rear  slightly  elevate  the  muz- 
zles of  their  pieces,  thus  placing  their  projectiles 
a  little  farther  forward,  covering  the  trenches 
there  and  interfering  with  oncoming  reinforce- 
ments. This  is  the  moment  when  the  survivors 
in  the  assailed  trenches  and  machine-gun  nests 
come  to  the  top  as  best  they  can  and  commence 
to  pour  bullets  into  the  oncoming  ranks. 

Though  the  survivors  of  the  preliminary  bom- 
bardment may  be  few,  such  is  the  strength  of  the 
shelters  in  which  they  hide  during  the  shelling 


EFFECT  OF  THE  NEW  WEAPONS   299 

that  seldom  are  all  wiped  out,  no  matter  how 
fierce  the  artillery  fire  may  have  been.  If  tanks 
are  being  employed  in  the  attack  they  now  come 
into  action,  wandering  over  the  battle-field  looking 
for  machine  guns  and  turning  upon  them,  when 
discovered,  the  artillery  with  which  those  steel 
monsters  are  armed.  The  attacking  infantry,  of 
course,  are  firing  at  every  spot  before  them  that 
shows  signs  of  hostile  men,  using  their  ordinary 
rifles,  automatic  rifles,  and  portable  machine  guns. 
Part  of  such  infantry,  however,  carry  no  guns,  but 
are  armed  with  a  kind  of  weapon  resurrected 
from  the  distant  past — the  grenade,  thrown  from 
the  hand  and  bursting,  either  by  means  of  a  timer 
or  upon  contact  with  the  ground.  A  twelve- 
pound  grenade  can  only  be  thrown  about  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty  feet,  so  that  the  rifle  bullets  must 
keep  the  enemy  below  ground,  if  possible,  to 
enable  the  grenadiers  to  get  within  throwing  dis- 
tance; but  once  close  enough  to  hurl  their  de- 
structive missiles  into  the  machine-gun  emplace- 
ment, the  latter  must  succumb.  The  barrage  fire 
advances  yet  again,  with  the  infantry  following, 
until  trench  after  trench  is  thus  taken,  the  ad- 
vance being  limited,  however,  to  the  zone  of  fire 
possible  to  the  supporting  artillery.  Then,  ex- 
perience has  shown  that  if  losses  are  to  be  con- 


300  THE  GUN  BOOK 

sidered,  infantry  must  stop  and  wait  for  cannon 
to  be  moved  up  and  preparations  completed  for 
a  new  battle. 

The  crucial  moment  in  an  infantry  attack 
against  machine  guns  is  that  elapsing  after  the 
barrage  fire  has  lifted,  and  before  tanks  and 
grenadiers  can  fall  upon  the  defenders  with  their 
cannon  and  high  explosives.  So  great  is  this 
defect  in  the  offensive  that  even  aeroplanes  are 
used  to  swoop  down,  braving  the  projectiles  of 
their  own  side  as  well  as  those  of  the  enemy,  to 
shoot  the  emerging  machine  gunners  and  force 
them  back  into  their  caves,  during  the  few  sec- 
onds which  the  infantry  line  requires  to  reach, 
the  hostile  trenches.  When  the  charging  infantry 
are  able  to  protect  themselves  against  the  machine 
gun  during  these  few  precious  moments  by  a 
strong  counter-fire,  the  question  of  successful  of- 
fensive fighting  will  be  to  a  large  extent  solved; 
and  this  vital  need  seems  to  be  now  supplied  in 
the  coming  of  the  Browning  automatic  rifle  al- 
ready mentioned.  If  our  army  and  those  of  the 
Allies  ever  succeed  in  pushing  their  way  through 
the  German  line  and  so  bring  the  war  to  the  enemy 
in  his  home,  we  believe  that  the  remarkable  new 
American  arm  will  play  a  large  part  in  the 
achievement. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

SHOTGUNS 

AFTEE  a  survey  of  the  wonderful  attainments 
of  musket  and  rifle  in  shooting  their  single  mis- 
siles, the  companion  arm,  the  shotgun,  seems  a 
laggard  in  the  path  of  progress.  In  ignition,  in 
breech-loading,  and  in  repeating  systems  it  has 
been  a  follower  rather  than  a  leader,  taking  the 
benefit  of  such  ideas  as  could  be  adapted  to  its 
uses,  but  contributing  little  to  the  science  of  gun- 
nery. With  one  single  exception,  the  discovery  of 
the  principle  of  choke-boring,  it  has  experienced 
no  such  revolutionary  advancements  as  those  wit- 
nessed in  the  other  classes  of  firearms. 

The  shotgun  is  the  direct  descendant  of  the  old 
blunderbuss,  the  office  of  which  was  to  scatter  a 
handful  or  so  of  nondescript  missiles  over  a  wide 
area,  at  a  range  of  about  a  hundred  feet.  Its 
shooting  distance  is  not  much  greater  even  now. 
The  only  superiority  it  can  boast  is  the  ability  to 
deliver  its  pellets  in  a  closer  group  than  the 
ancient  weapon  did,  together  with  less  weight  and 

301 


302  THE  GUN  BOOK 

greater  strength,  due  to  good  workmanship  and 
material.  Quick  shots  at  short  range,  without 
accurate  aiming,  are  now,  as  they  have  Always 
been,  its  distinctive  qualities. 

It  is  believed  that  the  shotgun  has  possibilities 
much  greater  than  have  ever  been  achieved  by  it, 
for  in  artillery  the  shrapnel  shell  has  shown  how 
small  missiles  in  large  number  may  be  thrown  to 
a  distance  and  made  to  scatter  when  and  where 
desired.  But  no  inventor  has  come  forward  with 
any  similar  plan  to  increase  the  range  of  the 
shotgun.  This  suggests  that  if  it  had  held  prom- 
ise of  usefulness  in  warfare  its  progress  might 
have  been  much  more  marked.  The  rich  financial 
prizes  for  improvements  in  guns  have  almost  in- 
variably gone  to  inventors  working  upon  military 
weapons.  Thus,  Minie,  the  Frenchman,  received 
a  hundred  thousand  dollars  from  the  British  Gov- 
ernment for  the  right  to  use  the  rifle  ball  which 
took  his  name ;  while  other  nations  also  paid  well 
for  the  same  privilege.  There  are  many  other 
examples  of  the  same  sort  today,  where  govern- 
ments are  paying  millions  in  royalties  to  men 
who  have  furnished  ideas  for  the  betterment  of 
military  arms.  In  all  this  the  shotgun  has  had 
no  share,  though  what  it  might  have  been  today 
under  such  stimulus  no  one  can  say. 


SHOTGUNS  303 

As  early  as  1580  guns  seem  to  have  been  made 
for  the  purpose  of  shooting  at  flying  birds,  for 
in  that  year  the  'sport  is  mentioned  in  Italian 
records.  In  1626  we  have  already  seen  that  the 
New  England  colonists  were  supplied  with 
"ffowlinge  peeces,  6  foote  longe,"  delivered  with 
a  lot  of  muskets.  The  weapon  therefore  is  not 
an  infant.  In  the  United  States  it  has  been  put 
to  more  uses  than  the  killing  of  birds  and  rabbits, 
for  even  now  there  are  hunters  who  load  it  with 
buckshot  and  pursue  deer  or  bear  in  brushy  coun- 
try where. short  ranges  and  quick  shots  are  the 
ruling  conditions.  On  the  frontier,  too,  for  many 
years  the  guards  on  stage  coaches  habitually  car- 
ried "sawed-off"  shotguns  to  repel  bandits. 
These  had  short  double  barrels  about  eighteen 
inches  long,  which  permitted  easy  handling,  and 
when  loaded  with  heavy  shot  were  weapons  to 
which  even  the  hardy  road-agent  showed  respect. 
The  writer  has  vivid  recollections  of  sheriffs  and 
their  posses  armed  with  these  ugly-looking  dwarf 
guns  going  about  after  outlaws  and  other  crim- 
inals in  the  early  days  of  the  Northwest;  while 
even  today  we  hear  that  our  American  soldiers  in 
France  are  using  sawed-off  shotguns  to  repel 
trench  raids  and  that  with  good  effect.  But  the 
chief  use  of  the  shotgun  has  always  been  that 


304  THE  GUN  BOOK 

to  which  it  is  put  today,  the  killing  of  small  game 
in  motion,  at  short  ranges. 

The  principal  part  of  the  fowling  piece  is  its 
"barrel,  which  is  large  in  bore,  long,  and  thin.  As 
it  scatters  its  missiles  so  widely  it  must  throw  a 
comparatively  heavy  charge  of  lead  in  order  to 
succeed  in  hitting  a  small  target;  the  bore  must 
therefore  be  ample  to  receive  and  eject  it.  To 
prevent  the  shot  from  scattering  too  much*  the 
barrel  is  made  long;  but  so  short  are  the  ranges 
intended  that  severe  pressures  are  not  required, 
hence  the  tube  may  be  made  quite  thin  as  com- 
pared with  the  barrel  of  the  rifle.  The  shotgun 
is  never  expected  to  develop  more  than  from  four 
to  six  tons  of  pressure  per  square  inch,  whereas 
the  rifle  must  bear  four  or  five  times  that  much,. 
A  shotgun  with  a  good  barrel  is  nearly  always 
a  good  gun. 

Upon  the  making  of  these  barrels  has  been  lav- 
ished the  genius  of  many  generations  of  skilled 
gun  makers.  The  large-bored  tube  was,  of  course, 
very  heavy  unless  made  thin,  and  the  thinner  a, 
given  piece  of  metal  is  the  weaker  it  is  and  the 
more  easily  damaged.  As  thickness  decreases, 
furthermore,  the  more  serious  become  any  slight 
defects  the  material  may  contain.  Then,  too,  the 
larger  the  tube  the  greater  the  number  of  square 


SHOTGUNS  305 

inches  of  its  inner  surface  exposed  to  the  powder 
pressure,  thereby  adding  to  the  danger  of 
rupture.  So  that  the  production  of  a  tube  large, 
light,  and  still  strong  enough  for  its  work,  re- 
quires exceptional  skill  and  pains. 

The  severest  strain  upon  a  gun  barrel  is  always 
at  right  angles  to  the  bore.  Expanding  gas 
presses  equally  hard  in  all  directions,  but  as  the 
missile  moves  forward  under  the  first  impact  of 
the  explosion  the  pressure  in  front  is  quickly  re- 
lieved ;  the  walls  of  the  tube,  however,  must  stand 
firm.  Therefore  the  tendency  of  the  barrel  is  to 
burst  at  the  side,  instead  of  being  pulled  apart 
endwise.  This  is  almost  invariably  the  manner  in 
which  gun  barrels  give  way.  This  peculiarity  has 
given  rise  to  interesting  methods  in  the  making* 
of  the  thin  shotgun  barrel. 

A  well-worked  iron  or  steel  rod  has  fibers  run- 
ning lengthwise  through  it,  something  like  the 
strands  of  a  rope.  When  such  a  rod  is  pulled 
upon  in  the  direction  of  the  fibers  it  will  bear  a 
great  load  before  Breaking,  while  a  strain  across 
its  grain  will  tear  it  apart  much  more  readily. 
Taking  advantage  of  this  difference  in  strength, 
shotgun  makers  in  the  last  century  began  form- 
ing barrels  for  these  guns  by  winding  strips  of 
iron  into  a  spiral-like  tube,  and  then  welding  the- 


306 


THE  GUN  BOOK 


edges  together  to  make  the  whole  a  solid  unit. 
By  this  means  the  powder  pressure  inside  the 
barrel  was  resisted  by  the  lengthwise  strength  of 


FIG.  78. — Showing  the  methods  by  which  shotgun  barrels  are 
made  of  coiled  rods  of  steel  and  iron,  and  how  such  barrels, 
after  being  subjected  to  an  acid  bath,  appear  as  if  beauti- 
fully engraved. 

the  fiber.  Thus  a  much  stronger  tube  was  pro- 
duced than  those  formed  by  simply  boring  a  hole 
in  a  long  solid  rod  of  iron.  The  same  principle 
is  used  in  the  construction  of  big  artillery,  where 
unusual  transverse  strength  is  obtained  by  layers 
of  wire  wrapped  around  the  inner  tube.  It  is  this 
spiral  method  of  manufacture  that  gives  us  the 


SHOTGUNS  307 

shotgun  with  the  "twisted"  barrel,  very  common 
a  few  years  ago  and  even  seen  today  in  the  more 
costly  weapons. 

The  beautiful  figures  appearing  on  the  outer 
surface  of  twisted  barrels  are  the  result  of  the 
discovery  that  alternate  strips  of  iron  and  steel 
coiled  into  a  tube  and  welded  together  gave  better 
results  than  either  steel  or  iron  used  alone.  The 
iron  gave  elasticity  and  toughness,  while  the  steel 
added  more  strength  than  mere  iron  could  supply. 
When  these  barrels  of  combined  materials  are 
dipped  in  weak  acids  the  iron  corrodes  more  rap- 
idly than  the  steel,  and  thus  is  produced  upon, 
the  surface  of  such  tubes  the  beautiful  scroll-like 
lines  so  much  admired.  The  more  complicated 
figures  are  the  result  of  twisting  the  strips  around 
each  other,  before  they  are  coiled  to  make  the 
tube  itself.  These  fancy  barrels,  pleasing  as  they 
are  to  the  eye,  are  easily  damaged  by  rough  usage 
and  are  giving  way  to  sturdier,  though  no  heavier 
ones,  of  special  steel,  molded  and  compressed  by 
modern  processes  until  great  resistance  is  ob- 
tained. 

Early  in  the  nineteenth  century  this  success  in 
making  tubes  strong  yet  light  led  to  the  produc- 
tion of  the  double-barreled  gun.  This  plan  not 
only  gave  the  hunter  a  second  shot  when  he 


308  THE  GUN  BOOK 

needed  it,  but  the  extra  weight  was  a  distinct  ad- 
vantage in  overcoming  recoil;  for  we  must  not 
forget  that  a  gun  too  light  is  worse  than  one  too 
heavy.  The  loads  which  the  shotgun  is  required 
to  shoot  have  never  been  decreased,  as  in  the 
rifle,  so  that  a  very  light  shotgun  has  always  been 
out  of  the  question.  Therefore  except  in  re- 
peaters, which  have  the  added  weight  of  their 
increased  mechanism,  the  double-barreled  shotgun 
remains  the  standard  type  to  this  day. 

After  breech-loading  principles  became  well 
established  in  rifles,  shotguns  also  were  made  to 
load  at  the  breech.  There  have  been  many  plans 
tried  for  making  the  gun  open  easily  for  charg- 
ing and  closing  it  securely  again  for  firing,  but 
the  method  that  has  finally  won  out  is  that  seen: 
in  the  old  breechloader  of  Philip  V,  in  which  the 
gun  breaks  on  a  hinge  at  the  lock,  the  muzzle 
descending,  exposing  the  rear  of  the  barrels. 
The  levers  by  which  this  operation  is  performed 
have  been  variously  placed  at  the  bottom,  top,  and 
side ;  the  top  device  having  in  the  long  run  proved 
best.  The  real  difficulty  has  always  been  in 
fastening  the  barrel  to  the  stock  and  frame  when 
in  position  for  firing.  Even  in  this  respect  im- 
provement has  been  made  only  in  recent  years, 
though  the  problems  involved  have  been  of  the 


SHOTGUNS 


309 


simplest  kind.    The  early  breech-loading  shotguns 
had  their  sole  fastenings  below  the  barrel,  close  to 


FIG.  79. — TYPES  OF  SHOTGUN  BOLTS 

When  the  drop-down  principle  became  generally  adopted  for 
the  breech-loading  shotgun,  we  were  long  without  a  satis- 
factory method  of  securing  the  hinged  barrel  to  the  stock. 
A.  and  B  show  the  lug  under  the  barrel  into  which  a  wedge 
operated  by  a  lever  fitted  to  hold  the  barrel  in  place  for 
firing.  B  has  in  addition  a  wedge  extending  back  from  the 
top  of  the  breech,  called  a  "  doll's-head,"  which  helped  some ; 
but  all  these  fastenings  were  insecure.  The  method  now 
used  is  to  place  a  wing  below  the  barrel  to  check  side  strains 
and  then  bolt  the  barrel  to  the  stock  by  means  of  a  per- 
forated pin  extending  backward  into  the  stock  at  the  top 
of  the  barrel,  as  shown  in  figure  C. 

the  hinge,  which  of  course  put  such  great  strain 
on  them  that  with  use  the  barrel  became  so  loose 
that  it  would  rattle  when  shaken.  The  first 


310  THE  GUN  BOOK 

breech-loading  shotgun  the  writer  owned,  a  rather 
expensive  gun,  too,  began  to  rattle  before  it  was 
three  months  old.  In  the  modern  gun,  however, 
this  defect  has  been  remedied  by  placing  the 
fastening  at  the  extreme  breech  and  on  top,  the 
position  in  which  it  belongs,  and  where  the  Smith 
&  Wesson  revolver  used  it  long  ago.  Just  how 
crude  the  old  guns  were  and  how  simple  the  cure 
was,  can  best  be  judged  by  a  view  of  the  prin- 
cipal types  of  breech  fastenings  which  have  been 
used  at  various  times. 

For  two  reasons  the  range  of  the  shotgun  is 
necessarily  very  short.  When  the  group  of  tiny 
missiles  is  sent  out  of  the  barrel  the  pellets  al- 
ways spread  more  or  less,  each  fighting  its  own 
way  through  the  air.  According  to  the  principle 
that  the  small  object  exposes  more  surface  in  pro- 
portion to  its  contents  than  a  larger  one  of  the 
same  shape,  the  resistance  each  pellet  has  to  over- 
come is  great,  compared  with  its  weight.  There- 
fore, no  matter  how  fast  shot  are  sent  .out  from 
the  barrel,  their  speed  is  quickly  cut  down. 
Large-sized  pellets  carry  further  and  have  greater 
penetrative  power,  but  of  course  the  number  used 
in  a  charge  must  then  be  lessened,  which  results 
in  broad  spaces  between  the  shot;  and,  if  the 
target  be  small,  misses  will  be  frequent.  Then, 


SHOTGUNS  311 

too,  it  is  found  that  if  the  muzzle  velocity  exceeds 
ten  to  twelve  hundred  feet  per  second,  the  pellets 
scatter  too  much  for  effective  shooting.  Hence, 
in  the  present  state  of  knowledge,  the  weapon  has 
about  reached  its  limit  of  efficiency.  It  is  a  good 
gun  that  will  in  continued  shooting  deliver  sev- 
enty per  cent  of  its  shot  within  a  thirty-inch 
circle  at  forty  yards.  Nor  was  even  this  mod- 
erate result  attainable  until  the  principle  of 
choke-boring  was  discovered. 

Some  time  before  the  middle  of  the  last  cen- 
tury a  practice  grew  up  in  the  United  States  of 
slightly  decreasing  the  bore  of  the  barrel  at  the 
muzzle,  with  the  result  that  the  shot  scattered 
less  than  when  fired  from  the  true  cylinder.  Who 
first  conceived  the  idea  and  put  it  into  practice 
we  do  not  know,  but  who  ever  did  it  is  entitled 
to  the  credit  of  making  the  single  important  dis- 
covery peculiar  to  this  type  of  weapon.  It  seems 
to  be  generally  conceded  that  the  invention  orig- 
inated in  America,  and  though  a  man  named 
Roper  secured  a  patent  for  a  similar  gun  barrel  in 
this  country,  in  1866,  the  idea  was  in  use  long 
before  that.  It  took  a  good  many  years  to  test 
out  the  full  limits  of  the  choke-boring  principle, 
the  final  result  of  the  experiments  proving  that 
in  a  ten-gauge  gun,  if  the  final  two  or  three  inches 


312  THE  GUN  BOOK 

of  the  bore  at  the  muzzle  be  made  four  one-hun- 
dredths  of  an  inch  narrower  than  the  rest  of  the 
barrel,  the  shot  will  be  best  held  together.  As 
the  size  of  the  gun  decreases  the  constriction  must 
also  be  lessened;  so  that  in  a  twenty-gauge  gun, 
for  instance,  the  amount  allowable  is  only  half 
that  of  the  ten-gauge. 

We  do  not  know  exactly  the  reason  why  choke- 
boring  should  cause  the  pellets  to  remain  closer 
together,  but  modern  photography  and  the  use 
of  powder  without  smoke  have  given  us  a  tolera- 
bly clear  idea  of  the  operation.  By  shooting  the 
charge  against  a  wire  which  electrically  operates 
the  camera  shutter,  we  have  been  given  pictures 
of  the  charges  as  they  emerge  from  both  plain 
and  choke-bored  barrels.  From  these  pictures  it 
seems  that  in  the  plain  barrel  when  the  gases 
push  the  charge  from  the  rear,  with  the  air  press- 
ing against  it  in  front,  the  effect  is  to  squeeze 
the  center  pellets  out  sideways  at  the  instant  they 
leave  the  tube,  thus  causing  them  to  fly  off  at 
angles,  and  so  arrive  at  their  target  widely 
spread.  The  peculiar  effect  of  choke-boring  in 
sending  the  pellets  off  in  a  closer  group  seems  to 
depend  chiefly  upon  the  action  of  the  wad  behind 
the  shot  charge  when  it  reaches  the  constriction. 
This  wad,  being  strong  and  tight-fitting,  appears 


SHOTGUNS 


313 


Cof/- 


n>/3WaJ 


S  * 


Shot 


Wac/ 


FIG.  80. — Photographs  of  shotgun  charges  leaving  the  muzzle, 
the  camera  being  snapped  by  contact  of  the  forward  wad 
against  the  wire.  A  shows  the  shot  leaving  an  ordinary 
barrel  in  a  compact  body,  while  B  reveals  the  shot  from  the 
choke-bored  barrel  stringing  out  for  the  reasons  explained 
in  the  text. 

to  have  its  progress  checked  momentarily  by  the 
slight  obstruction;  in  turn  the  oncoming  gases 
are  similarly  retarded.  This  happens  just  as  the 


THE  GUN  BOOK 

charge  is  leaving  the  muzzle.  Thus  the  pressure 
being  relieved  at  the  rear,  the  squeezing  effect 
produced  in  the  plain  barrel  is  avoided,  and  the 
units  of  the  charge  pass  on  straighter  to  their 
mark.  While  this  explanation  is  not  entirely 
satisfactory,  it  is  the  best  of  the  many  ingenious 
ones  offered.  All  agree  that  we  have  still  some- 
thing to  learn  about  how  the  choke-bored  barrel 
produces  its  results. 

It  might  naturally  be  expected  that  the  choke- 
bored  barrel,  keeping  the  pellets  close  together, 
as  it  does,  would  have  caused  a  reduction  in  the 
number  of  missiles  necessary  to  a  charge.  This 
has  not  been  the  case,  though,  because  of  the  sub- 
stantial percentage  of  them  practically  destroyed 
at  the  muzzle.  The  slight  shoulder  against  which 
the  missiles  are  forced  so  suddenly  flattens  about 
thirty  per  cent  of  those  on  the  outside  of  the  mass, 
and  these  deformed  ones  fly  wildly  because  of 
unequal  air  pressures  on  their  surfaces ;  many  of 
them,  too,  while  going  fairly  straight,  arrive  at 
the  journey's  end  too  late  to  be  of  service  against 
a  moving  target.  On  account  of  this  waste  the 
aggregate  charge  is,  therefore,  not  much  less  than 
before  choke-boring  was  introduced.  Better 
workmanship  and  more  careful  loading,  however, 
are  giving  adequate  results  with  smaller-sized 


SHOTGUNS  315 

guns,  and  there  is  in  consequence  a  distinct  tend- 
ency toward  the  adoption  of  guns  as  low  as  six- 
teen and  even  twenty  gauge. 

The  repeating  principle  has  been  applied  to 
shotguns  with  excellent  success,  though  most 
sportsmen  find  that  the  double-barreled  weapon 
giving  its  two  shots  supplies  all  ordinary  needs  in 
hunting  small  game.  In  America  the  repeating 
shotgun,  like  the  repeating  rifle,  is  more  popular 
than  in  Europe,  and  its  use  here  seems  to  be 
growing.  There  are  a  number  of  good  weapons  of 
this  kind  to  be  had,  but  as  they  do  not  differ  in 
principle  from  the  types  already  shown  in  rifles, 
none  calls  for  special  mention  here,  except  per- 
haps that  invented  by  Browning,  which  operates 
by  means  of  a  slide  under  the  barrel,  whereby  the 
firer  is  permitted  to  reload  with  his  left  hand  while 
the  gun  remains  in  firing  position.  Americans  are 
now  beginning  to  take  up  the  automatic  loader, 
which  promises  in  time  to  displace  all  other  types. 
When  these  attain  greater  simplicity  and  become 
less  expensive  the  existing  shotguns  will  surely 
be  laid  aside.  The  mechanisms  of  these  new 
weapons  are  not  dissimilar  to  those  of  the  self- 
loading  pistol,  which  we  shall  consider  in  detail 
in  the  next  chapter. 


CHAPTER  XX 

THE  PISTOL 

OF  all  the  forms  which  firearms  have  taken 
none  has  become  so  closely  intertwined  with  the 
lives  of  modern  men  as  the  pistol.  Cheap,  light, 
and  handy,  powerful  at  short  ranges,  and  requir- 
ing little  skill  in  ordinary  use,  it  has  proved  to 
be  the  ideal  weapon  for  personal  defense.  The 
result  is  that  the  number  of  pistols  in  existence 
and  use  is  probably  greater  than  that  of  all  other 
weapons  combined.  Yet  only  within  the  last  cen- 
tury has  this  prominence  come  about.  Before 
that  time  it  was  the  sword  that  men,  even  in 
private  life,  generally  carried  or  kept  in  the  home 
as  a  convenient  and  reliable  weapon  for  self- 
defense.  On  the  backs  of  some  of  their  coats  men 
wear  buttons  even  down  to  this  day,  the  original 
purpose  of  which  was  to  support  the  sword  belt 
of  the  wearer.  It  was  the  revolving  pistol  pro- 
duced by  Samuel  Colt  in  1836  that  sent  the  non- 
military  sword  to  the  garret  as  a  relic,  and  at 

316 


THE  PISTOL  317 

the  same  time  made  the  ancient  art  of  swords- 
manship obsolete. 

The  early  pistol  was  designed  to  be  held  in  and 
fired  from  a  single  hand,  and  was  especially  in- 
tended for  the  us.e  of  cavalry.  It  was  really  the 
only  weapon  that  could  be  used  to  advantage  by 
the  horseman,  for  this  weapon  could  be  aimed 
and  fired  by  the  right  hand,  while  the  left  was 
free  to  hold  the  reins  and  guide  the  horse.  The 
musket  proper,  as  we  have  seen,  was  too  long 
and  heavy  and  too  hard  to  load  to  be  of  much  use 
to  the  mounted  man.  The  lighter  weight  of  the 
short  arm  permitted  the  addition  of  an  extra 
barrel,  and  this  became  common,  for  though  mak- 
ing the  weapon  somewhat  more  unwieldly,  the 
firing  power  of  the  bearer  was  thereby  doubled. 
From  the  early  part  of  the  sixteenth  century  on 
the  pistol  in  some  form  has  usually  been  a  part  of 
the  cavalryman '£  equipment. 

For  several  centuries  the  mounted  soldier  was 
taught  to  charge  the  enemy,  fire  his  pistol  at  short 
range,  and  then  throw  it  as  a  missile,  a  purpose 
for  which  the  old,  heavy  instrument  was  quite 
well  fitted.  After  thus  relieving  himself  of  the 
firearm,  the  charging  horseman  drew  his  sword 
and  began  the  real  fighting.  In  1544  we  read  of 
a  combat  between  Germans  and  French,  in  which 


318 


THE  GUN  BOOK 


the  cavalry  of  the  former  fought  with  pistols 
alone,  riding  forward  one  after  another,  firing, 
and  retreating  to  reload.  This  maneuver  became 
much  used  after  that,  being  called  "caracole,"  a 
term  still  employed  to  describe  the  wheeling  of 
cavalry  ranks  into  lines  or  files.  But  the  pistol 


FIG.  81. — OLD  PISTOLS 

a,  Highland  pistol  for  horseman,  17th  century; 
6,  Derringer; 
c,  Highland  pistol  for  the  belt,  16th  century. 


never  took  a  leading  part  in  warfare,  and  has 
always  been  regarded  by  the  soldier  as  a  minor 
weapon. 

Down  to  the  time  of  Colt's  invention  the  pistol 
commonly  used  did  not,  except  in  length  and  the 
shape  of  its  stock,  depart  far  from  the  type  of 
the  muskets  used  alongside  of  it.  The  various 
advances  in  ignition  were  transferred  to  it,  as 
they  came  forward  from  time  to  time;  while  the 
rifling  of  the  barrel  to  spin  the  projectile  was  also 


THE  PISTOL  319 

adopted  for  the  pistol  as  soon  as  the  greased 
patch  made  loading  easier.  Until  1836  the  pistol 
was  in  fact  only  a  musket  or  rifle  of  smaller 
size. 

Colt's  invention,  made  when  he  was  only 
twenty-one,  was  not  new,  as  has  been  explained, 
except  in  the  method  of  making  the  cylinder  re- 
volve, and  holding  it  fast  while  being  fired.  One 
other  attachment  which  he  added  to  the  arm,  and 
which  tended  to  quicken  the  loading  of  it,  was 
the  ingenious  ramrod  under  the  barrel.  This  was 
a  lever  which,  when  pulled  downward,  operated 
a  plunger  in  and  out  of  the  chamber  of  the 
cylinder;  by  its  help  the  powder  and  lead  could 
be  rammed  into  the  chambers  tightly  and  quite 
rapidly  considering  that  the  operation  was  re- 
stricted to  one  charge  at  a  time.  The  ratchet 
which  turned  the  cylinder,  the  stop  which  held  it 
in  place,  and  the  manner  of  working  the  jointed 
ramrod  are  shown  in  the  illustrations. 

The  Colt  revolver  proved  to  be  such  a  meri- 
torious weapon  that  within  a  few  years  after  its 
introduction  its  use  had  spread  throughout  the 
civilized  world.  No  contribution  to  firearms  of 
any  sort  has  ever  achieved  such  quick  and  general 
recognition;  which  fact  not  only  emphasizes  the 
virtues  of  the  invention  itself,  but  reveals  also 


320  THE  GUN  BOOK 

the  universal  need  which  existed  for  such  an  arm. 
In  measuring  Colt's  success  it  must  at  the  same 
time  be  remembered  that  without  the  percussion 
principle,  with  which  even  his  earliest  produc- 
tions were  fitted,  the  usefulness  of  his  revolver 
would  have  been  doubtful.  Therefore  to  Forsyth 


FIG.  82. — MECHANISM  OF  THE  ORIGINAL  COLT  REVOLVER 
The  above  diagram  shows  the  ingenious  invention  of  Samuel  Colt, 
which  formed  the  basis  of  the  successful  revolvers.  In  such 
weapons  used  heretofore  the  cylinder  was  turned  by  hand, 
with  the  result  that  the  firing  chamber  did  not  always  come 
opposite  the  barrel,  which  made  them  dangerous.  In  Colt's 
weapon  mere  cocking  of  the  hammer  moved  the  cylinder 
exactly  into  place  and  locked  it  there.  (See  Figs.  48,  49, 
50,  Chapter  XII.  a,  hammer;  5,  hand;  c,  ratchet;  d,  bolt; 
e,  nipple;  /,  cylinder. 

the  Scotchman  and  Shaw  the  American  are  due 
a  substantial  share  in  the  triumph. 

During  the  life  of  Colt's  patent  his  invention 
enjoyed  practically  a  monopoly  of  the  field  in 
pistols.  With  the  coming  of  the  metallic  car- 
tridge shell  and  the  resulting  success  in  breech- 


THE  PISTOL 

loading,  the  cylinders  of  the  revolver  were  altered 
to  use  that  kind  of  ammunition,  thereby  increas- 
ing its  rapidity  of  fire  substantially,  and  making 
it  a  better  weapon  than  before.  The  self-cocking 
action  added  in  later  years  also  permitted  quicker 
operation.  Upon  the  expiration  of  the  patent  a 
large  variety  of  revolvers  came  upon  the  market, 
nearly  all  using  Colt's  ideas,  and  differing  chiefly 
in  modes  of  loading  cartridges  and  discharging 
the  empty  shells.  None  of  these  new  arms  used 
any  novel  principle  of  sufficient  importance  to 
receive  mention  here;  and  then,  too,  most  of  us 
are  already  familiar  with  the  parts  and  workings 
of  the  best  of  them. 

The  revolver  has  never  been  a  perfect  weapon, 
for,  though  the  later  models  loaded  at  the  breech 
of  the  cylinder,  the  gap  remained  at  the  junction 
between  cylinder  and  barrel.  No  matter  how 
skilfully  made,  there  must  always  be  play  enough 
at  that  point  to  allow  the  cylinder  to  revolve 
easily,  the  effect  of  which  is  to  permit  substantial 
escape  of  gas  and  consequent  loss  of  power.  The 
man  who  can  devise  a  plan  to  close  that  joint 
without  obstructing  the  cylinder  in  its  motion  may 
ask  and  receive  practically  his  own  price  for  the 
invention;  for  thereby  will  be  cured  the  one  great 
drawback  from  which  the  revolver  has  suffered 


THE  GUN  BOOK 

from  the  beginning,  ^o  far  no  successful  method 
to  accomplish  this  has  been  evolved,  though  hun- 
dreds of  men  have  worked  valiantly  at  the  task. 
But  in  spite  of  this  great  fault  the  revolver  has 
for  seventy  years  continued  to  hold  its  important 
place  among  firearms. 

Though  it  happened  to  him  as  a  boy  many  years 
ago,  the  author  distinctly  remembers  the  day  when 
he  first  had  forced  upon  his  attention  the  quantity 
of  gas  wasted  by  the  revolver  at  the  junction  of 
its  cylinder  and  barrel.  It  was  in  the  sagebrush 
near  the  Yellowstone  Eiver  when,  as  he  rode  along, 
a  coyote  jumped  up  from  his  covert  and  ran 
ahead.  The  author  drew  his  revolver,  a  .44  Colt, 
and  spurred  forward  in  chase.  After  missing  a 
shot  or  two,  the  reins  were  dropped  while  the 
weapon  was  grasped  with  the  left  hand  to  steady 
it  in  the  effort  to  make  a  sure  hit.  The  shot  was 
delivered,  but  whether  or  not  the  bullet  took  effect 
the  young  hunter  never  knew,  for  his  attention 
was  instantly  arrested  by  an  unexpected  occur- 
rence. At  the  explosion,  the  fingers  of  the  sup- 
porting left  hand  were  thrust  violently  apart, 
while  a  dart  of  pain  in  the  members  made  their 
owner  wince.  A  glance  at  the  fingers  showed 
them  seared  and  blackened.  His  first  thought  was 
that  the  weapon  had  burst,  but  examination 


THE  PISTOL  323 

proved  it  still  intact,  whereupon  the  truth  dawned 
upon  the  mind  of  the  startled  youngster.  The 
burned  fingers  had  been  placed  around  the  rear  of 
the  barrel  and  the  side-way  blast  of  gas  at  the 
explosion  had  been  powerful  enough  to  forcibly 
disengage  them  and  burn  the  hand  severely.  The 
lesson  then  learned  by  the  author  he  now  passes 
along  to  other  novices  in  revolver  shooting,  which 
is  that  if  extra  support  is  to  be  given  the  weapon 
in  making  a  shot,  the  left  hand,  or  better,  the 
arm,  should  be  placed  under  the  frame  of  the 
weapon  and  not  in  proximity  to  the  upper  chamber 
of  the  cylinder  where  danger  lurks. 

The  ascendency  of  the  revolver  is  now  upon  the 
wane,  however,  for  a  rival  has  appeared  against 
which  it  probably  cannot  long  contend. 

This  new  weapon,  the  self-loading  pistol,  is  rap- 
idly gaining  the  place  of  honor,  not  only  among 
private  citizens  but  in  armies  as  well.  Nearly 
all  the  nations  have  adopted  it  as  the  official 
weapon  for  officers  in  army  and  navy;  while  the 
United  States  infantry  is  equipped  with  it  in 
France,  where  it  is  relied  upon  as  an  adjunct  to 
the  bayonet  in  fighting  at  close  quarters.  The 
type  of  automatic  pistol  that  has  received  prac- 
tically unanimous  favor  both  in  America  and 
Europe  is  that  invented  by  Browning.  As  it  is 


THE  GUN  BOOK 

the  official  weapon  of  our  military  forces  and  a 
good  example  of  the  whole  class  of  firearms  which 
use  the  force  of  recoil  to  effect  the  loading  opera- 
tion, a  careful  inspection  of  the  Browning  pistol, 
or,  as  it  is  called  after  the  manufacturer,  the  Colt 
Automatic  Pistol,  will  be  instructive. 


FIG.  83. — COLT  AUTOMATIC  PISTOL,  GOVERNMENT  MODEL 
This  pistol,  .45  caliber,  has  been  adopted  by  most  of  the  armies 
and  navies  of  the  world,  including  our  own.     This  production 
of  Browning  promises  to  displace  entirely  Colt's  invention, 
which  has  reigned  supreme  in  its  field  for  80  years. 

The  magazine  is  within  the  stock  and  holds 
seven  cartridges,  inserted  from  below;  a  spring 
pushes  them  up,  keeping  one  always  near  the 
breech  of  the  barrel.  After  loading,  the  slide  is 
drawn  back  once  by  the  hand,  which  operation 
places  the  cartridge  in  the  firing  chamber,  and 
locks  the  weapon.  When  the  trigger  is  pulled  the 


THE  PISTOL  325 

recoil  thrusts  the  barrel  and  slide  backward  to- 
gether, during  which  journey  the  bullet  escapes 
from  the  barrel.  By  the  time  this  takes  place 
the  barrel  drops  downward  on  its  toggle  joints 
and  stops,  while  the  slide  continues  to  the  rear, 

SLIDE   AND  BREECH 

STOPPER  IN 

BARRELv        ONE  PIECE  BLOCKING  RIBS 

tfflfa.     \ 


CARTRIDGES 
JNSERTED  HERE 


FIG.  84. — COLT  AUTOMATIC  PISTOL,  GOVERNMENT  MODEL 

(Browning  Pistol) 
Sectional  view,  showing  mechanism. 

cocking  the  hammer,  and  opening  a  space  under- 
neath into  which  the  magazine  spring  thrusts  a 
cartridge.  The  retractor  spring  then  pulls  the 
slide  forward,  which  inserts  the  cartridge  in  the 
barrel;  after  which  both  barrel  and  slide  return 


326  THE  GUN  BOOK 

to  their  former  positions,  the  toggle  joints  rais- 
ing the  barrel  again  so  that  the  locking  ribs  en- 
gage the  slots  in  the  slide,  and  the  weapon  may  be 
fired  again  when  the  trigger  is  pulled.  This 
operation  is  repeated  as  long  as  a  cartridge  re- 
mains in  the  magazine. 

Thus  this  type  of  pistol  is  not  only  a  repeater, 
but  avoids  the  gap  which  exists  in  the  revolver 
between  cylinder  and  barrel,  for  the  cartridge  is 
exploded  in  the  barrel  itself.  Not  the  least  of  the 
advantages  of  the  new  weapon  is  the  decreasing  of 
the  shock  of  recoil,  which  was  a  serious  drawback 
to  the  revolver  of  large  size.  Instead  of  disturb- 
ing the  shot,  this  force  is  now  largely  taken  up 
in  the  operation  of  the  mechanism,  the  result 
being  that  a  .45-caliber  pistol  of  this  kind  gives 
no  more  recoil  than  a  revolver  of  .38  caliber  of 
the  same  weight. 

Why  is  it,  one  may  well  ask,  that  while  rifle 
calibers  have  so  steadily  decreased,  our  military 
authorities  have  adopted  the  huge  .45  caliber  for 
their  service  pistol?  At  first  glance  this  seems 
to  be  a  turning  backward  of  the  clock  of  prog- 
ress; yet  the  answer  is  quite  satisfying.  The 
pistol  is  essentially  a  weapon  for  moderate 
ranges.  With  its  short  barrel  bringing  the  sights 
too  close  together  for  distance  work  and  intended, 


THE  PISTOL  327 

as  the  pistol  is,  to  be  supported  and  fired  from 
a  single  hand,  fifty  to  seventy-five  yards  are  about 
the  limit  within  which  hits  from  it  may  be  ex- 
pected. Recoil  being  largely  taken  up  by  the 
reloading  mechanism,  heavy  powder  charges  are 
permissible,  giving  a  surplus  of  power  which  the 
arm  should  in  some  way  be  made  to  utilize.  The 
modern  pistol  firer  then  finds  himself  in  much 
the  same  situation  as  did  the  musketeer  mentioned 
in  Chapter  VII;  he  can  send  a  small  missile  far 
but  not  accurately,  hence  he  may  as  well  use  a 
big,  hard-hitting  bullet  with  low  velocity,  which 
will  inflict  the  maximum  damage  to  the  human 
enemy  for  which  it  is  intended.  The  small  metal- 
patched  bullet  will  frequently  pass  through  a  man 
without  checking  his  advance,  and  the  soft-nosed 
variety,  which  spreads  on  contact,  has  been,  as 
we  have  seen,  barred  from  use  in  warfare  by 
consent  of  nations.  There  has,  however,  been  no 
limit  placed  upon  the  size  of  the  missiles  which 
the  soldier  may  employ.  Therefore  our  .45-caliber 
pistol  is  a  legal  man-killer — the  irony  of  it — 
which,  upon  entering  the  body  of  a  German  in  the 
present  war  is  expected  promptly  to  cause  him 
to  lose  interest  in  his  mission  of  spreading 
"kultur"  by  force. 

There  are  already  on  the  market  a  number  of 


328  THE  GUN  BOOK 

sporting  shotguns  and  rifles  which  utilize  recoil 
in  loading  and  cocking  themselves,  as  in  the 
Browning  pistol,  but  a  study  of  the  latter  will 
give  a  fair  understanding  of  the  merits  and  prin- 
ciples of  the  whole  class. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

THE  GUN  OF  THE  FUTURE 

IN  the  writings  of  past  centuries  about  guns 
one  is  struck  by  the  cocksure  beliefs  constantly 
expressed  that  the  particular  kinds  of  firearms 
which  the  authors  saw  about  them,  in  their  various 
times,  were  the  best  that  could  ever  by  any  possi- 
bility be  produced.  And  we  of  these  later  days, 
even  with  all  the  former  false  predictions  before 
us,  are  also  inclined  to  take  the  same  attitude 
toward  our  own  weapons.  A  few  sober  second 
thoughts  upon  this  subject  will,  therefore,  not  be 
amiss,  for  there  still  remain  some  very  serious 
drawbacks  in  the  gun,  some  of  which,  at  least,  in 
the  light  of  experience,  we  may  reasonably  expect 
to  see  in  the  near  future  successfully  overcome. 

In  the  shotgun,  for  instance,  there  is  reason 
to  believe  that  some  change  will  be  made  or  some 
device  originated,  whereby  its  range  will  be  in- 
creased from  forty  yards  to  a  hundred  or  perhaps 
several  hundred  yards.  It  is  not  more  than  half 
a  century  since  the  cannon  was  used  as  a  huge 

329 


330  THE  GUN  BOOK 

shotgun,  to  throw  scattering  charges  of  grapeshot 
a  few  hundred  yards  from  the  muzzle,  while  the 
shrapnel  shell  now  permits  the  cluster  of  missiles 
to  be  carried  as  a  mass  for  several  miles,  and 
then  to  be  opened  up  and,  with  great  accuracy, 
strewn  over  the  space  selected.  If  the  pellets  can 
be  held  in  a  compact  body  they  will  meet  com- 
paratively little  air  resistance  during  their  long 
journey  forward,  and  arrive  near  their  target 
traveling  at  high  speed,  only  needing  to  be  re- 
leased at  the  proper  moment  to  scatter  and  do 
their  work.  This  kind  of  projectile  can  be  easily 
adapted  to  use  in  the  shotgun  if  some  one  will 
come  forward  with  a  plan  to  make  the  shell 
cheaply  enough  for  the  ordinary  sportsman's  use. 
The  specific  device  lacking  is  an  inexpensive  tim- 
ing apparatus,  by  which  the  charge  can  be  lib- 
erated at  the  right  instant.  When  this  invention 
arrives,  as  it  very  probably  will,  shotgun  shoot- 
ing will  be  the  most  fascinating  and  scientific  of 
all  sports. 

One  of  the  chief  drawbacks  to  all  our  firearms 
is  the  high  cost  of  ammunition.  No  weapon  for 
general  use  can  be  called  a  success  when  its  opera- 
tion is  so  expensive  as  to  prevent  the  average  man 
from  using  it  freely.  The  scarcity  of  powder  and 
the  costliness  of  iron  did  much  in  the  earlier  days 


THE  GUN  OF  THE  FUTURE  331 

to  keep  the  gun  in  the  background,  as  it  was  for 
so  long,  and  a  similar  reason  now  keeps  the  gun 
of  standard  sizes  out  of  the  hands  of  the  majority 
of  men.  The  weapon  itself  is  quite  low  in  price- 
lower  in  America  than  anywhere  in  the  world,  con- 
sidering quality — but  as  long  as  each  shot  costs 
the  gunner  from  two  to  five  cents,  rifle  and  shot- 
gun shooting  are  bound  to  remain  the  pastime  of 
the  well-to-do,  to  the  exclusion  of  the  masses. 

There  is  no  sufficient  reason  why  a  brass,  or 
brass  and  paper,  shell,  made  of  costly  material 
and  by  intricate  processes,  should  be  discarded 
after  a  single  shot.  This  part  of  the  cartridge  is 
its  most  costly  item;  and  though  it  can  be  re- 
loaded, there  are  few  persons  who  possess  the 
skill  to  make  a  modern  cartridge  with  the  neces- 
sary accuracy,  even  when  given  the  shell  ready 
to  their  hands.  Experience  has  taught  most  gun- 
ners the  futility  of  trying  to  get  good  results  from 
ammunition  of  their  own  creation.  It  not  only 
shoots  poorly,  as  a  rule,  but  the  mechanism  of  the 
gun  is  so  exact  that  the  slightest  variation  in 
dimensions  of  the  cartridge  interferes  seriously 
with  quick  and  easy  operation,  to  say  nothing 
of  the  very  real  danger  from  premature  ex- 
plosions which  exists  in  the  loading  and  firing  of 
home-made  ammunition.  The  modern  gun  de- 


THE  GUN  BOOK 

mands  cheaper  ammunition,  and  the  inventor  who 
can  produce  it  will  accomplish  a  great  contribution 
to  gunnery. 

One  cannot  help  believing,  too,  that  our  system 
of  ignition  falls  far  short  of  what  is  possible  in 
that  respect.  The  making  of  the  primer,  the  form- 
ing of  the  shell  to  receive  it,  and  the  mechanism 
the  gun  requires  to  set  it  off,  all  add  greatly  to 
the  cost  of  shooting.  But  it  is  not  in  cost  that 
the  chief  detriment  lies,  for  the  most  archaic  part 
of  the  gun  is  the  present  means  of  discharging  it, 
the  frigger  and  hammer.  No  one  doubts  that  at 
least  half  of  the  errors  in  shooting  are  the  result, 
directly  or  indirectly,  of  faulty  work  in  releasing 
the  trigger.  For  safety's  sake  a  pull  of  several 
pounds  is  generally  provided  for,  and  the  exer- 
tion of  so  much  force  on  a  particular  portion  of 
the  weapon,  at  the  most  crucial  instant,  cannot 
help  introducing  serious  disturbances  where  mere 
hairbreadths  on  the  sights  count  in  yards  at  the 
target.  In  time  some  genius  will  give  us  an  igni- 
tion system  which  will  be  cheap,  and  will  permit 
firing  by  a  mere  touch,  yet  with  safety.  Electrical 
devices  for  this  purpose  are  in  existence  today, 
but  have  been  found  too  faulty  for  good  service. 
They  also  require  a  primer  to  start  the  explosion, 
for  we  know  of  no  means  today  to  ignite  smoke- 


THE  GUN  OF  THE  FUTURE  333 

less  powder  by  electric  current  without  a  cap  of 
some  sort.  With  this  want  supplied  the  cumber- 
some and  costly  ignition  method  now  in  use  will 
promptly  disappear,  perhaps  leaving  us  in  won- 
derment at  our  having  so  long  borne  with  its 
crudities. 

The  military  rifle  of  the  future,  it  is  confidently 
predicted,  will  be  practically  a  machine  gun,  firing 
with  great  rapidity,  by  means  of  self-loading  and 
igniting  devices,  as  are  the  heavier  weapons  of 
that  name  now  in  use.  The  present  objection  to 
their  general  adoption  for  the  infantryman  is  the 
difficulty  in  supplying  ammunition  in  larger  quan- 
tities than  is  now  possible.  With  the  standard 
rifle  already  in  use  the  trooper  can  in  five  minutes ' 
time  fire  his  full  burden  of  cartridges,  fifty  to  one 
hundred,  so  that  faster  shooting  under  present 
conditions  of  supply  is  of  little  importance,  for 
the  soldier  without  cartridges  is  left  to  his 
bayonet  alone  for  offense  and  protection.  The 
automatic  rifle  when  used  in  France  today  is  usu- 
ally accompanied  by  two  extra  men  who  serve  as 
ammunition  bearers ;  thus  three  men  are  exposed 
to  the  fire  of  the  enemy  while  only  one  of  them 
is  delivering  fire  in  return.  The  amount  of 
ammunition  carried  per  man  could  be  doubled 
if  the  brass  shell  could  be  abolished,  for  it  con- 


334  THE  GUN  BOOK 

stitutes  nearly  half  the  weight  of  each  cartridge. 
The  cartridge  used  in  the  United  States  Spring- 
field, for  instance,  weighs  3951/2  grains ;  200  grains 
being  due  to  the  charges  of  powder  and  lead, 
leaving  195%  grains  for  the  shell  alone.  To  give 
the  soldier  two  cartridges  where  he  now  has  only 
one  would  not  usher  in  the  automatic  weapon  in 


FIG.  85. — MAXIM  SILENCER 

The  loud  noise  made  by  the  explosion  in  the  gun  is  due  to  the 
vibrations  of  the  air  caused  by  the  violent  outrush  of  powder 
gases.  The  silencer  permits  the  bullet  to  pass  through  a  hole 
in  its  center,  the  gases  being  caught  by  the  curling  fins  and 
made  to  whirl  around  inside  the  silencer;  thus  their  forward 
velocity  is  decreased  and  their  final  escape  made  more 
gradual. 

place  of  the  common  rifle,  but  the  advantage  con- 
ferred would  be  a  great  one,  nevertheless. 

Then  there  is  the  noise  of  the  gun,  once  con- 
sidered one  of  its  chief  virtues,  but  now  counted 
a  great  defect  in  shooting.  The  soldier  firing 
from  cover  reveals  his  position  by  the  loud  report, 
while  on  the  battle-field  the  uproar  of  myriads 
of  explosions  cuts  him  off  from  spoken  orders 
from  his  officers.  The  hunter,  too,  would  find  in 
the  noiseless  gun  a  weapon  well  suited  to  his  pur- 


THE  GUN  OF  THE  FUTURE  335 

poses,  for,  should  he  then  fire  and  miss,  another 
shot  would  be  possible  before  his  quarry  fled  in 
alarm.  The  best  silencer  yet  produced  is  the 
Maxim,  which  arrests  the  gases  at  the  muzzle,  and 
by  causing  them  to  follow  a  winding  path  to  the 
outer  air,  and  so  to  issue  slowly,  muffles  the  ex- 
plosion very  substantially.  In  rifles  of  high 
power,  however,  the  sound  is  not  deadened  enough 
to  warrant  general  acceptance  of  the  device. 

Aside  from  the  report  of  the  explosion,  there 
is  another  detrimental  sound  produced  in  firing 
the  modern  rifle,  which  arises  from  the  action  of 
the  air  while  being  pierced  by  a  very  fast  bullet. 
When  the  speed  of  a  missile  is  much  over  1,300 
feet  per  second  it  produces  a  snapping  sound  in 
its  passage,  which  at  higher  velocities  becomes 
a  sharp  report  to  one  standing  near  its  path.  In 
the  days  of  black  powder  and  low  velocities  this 
effect  was  practically  unknown,  though  with  our 
present  arms,  sending  off  bullets  at  the  rate  of 
two  and  three  thousand  feet  per  second,  it  has 
come  to  be  a  serious  drawback,  especially  to  the 
hunter.  Where  an  animal  is  fired  at  and  missed, 
the  report  of  the  gun  at  a  distance  is  bad  enough, 
but  to  have  this  secondary  crack  take  place  about 
its  ears  makes  it  flee  in  instant  alarm.  No  method 
has  yet  been  suggested  whereby  the  bullet  as  used 


336  THE  GUN  BOOK 

at  present  can  be  prevented  from  making  its  noisy 
passage  through  the  air,  though  it  is  possible  to 
make  a  missile  of  such  form  that  it  will  not  only 
dispose  of  this  sound,  but  bring  in  with  it  other 
almost  revolutionary  advantages. 

We  have  seen  that  the  modern  bullet  is 
grievously  defective,  in  that  it  travels  light  end 
foremost.  But  combined  with  that  is  another 
fault  which,  when  both  are  considered,  would  al- 
most justify  the  statement  that  we  have  been 
forced  to  adopt  the  worst  possible  form  which  a 
projectile  could  take.  In  order  to  apply  the  force 
of  the  explosion  to  the  bullet  we  make  its  rear 
end  flat ;  though  nature  has  shown  us  in  its  swift 
birds  and  fish  that,  for  efficient  locomotion 
through  air  or  water,  both  ends  should  be  pointed, 
the  longest  taper  being  at  the  rear.  In  building 
boats  and  torpedoes  we  have  copied  the  forms  of 
these  creatures  successfully;  but  boats  and  tor- 
pedoes carry  their  own  propulsive  power  with 
them,  while  the  projectile  must  receive  its  total 
impetus  from  the  gases  in  the  gun  barrel.  If  we 
could  send  our  bullet  off  efficiently  when  formed 
in  a  general  way  like  a  trout,  that  is,  with  a 
pointed  nose,  the  thickest  part  well  forward,  and 
a  long  tapering  tail,  there  would  be  need  for  only 
spin  enough  to  overcome  the  disturbing  influ- 


THE  GUN  OF  THE  FUTURE  337 

ences  of  slight  defects  in  its  construction  and  ma- 
terial; for  with  the  principal  weight  toward  the 
front  there  would  no  longer  be  the  tendency  to 
tip  over  and  fly  rear  end  first,  as  in  the  broad- 
based  bullet.  Nor  would  the  cracking  sound  the 
present  missile  makes  in  its  passage  be  heard,  for 
that  is  caused  by  the  air  snapping  together  after 
the  flat-ended  bullet  has  pierced  it.  The  long- 
tailed  projectile  would  fill  up  the  hollow  behind 
it,  allowing  the  air  to  come  together  again  slowly. 
A  missile  so  shaped  would  not  only  slip  silently 
through  the  air,  and  require  less  spin,  but  would 
actually  retain  its  speed  much  longer  than  the 
clumsy  object  we  use  at  present. 

The  form  of  bullet  we  now  use  wastes  power, 
as  the  snapping  together  of  the  air  behind  it 
clearly  proves.  A  boat  that  tosses  water  about 
wildly  when  underway  is  badly  built  and  uses  up 
excessive  energy,  for  experience  proves  that  to  get 
the  most  speed  from  a  ton  of  coal  the  vessel  must 
glide  through  the  water,  making  the  least  commo- 
tion possible.  The  water  pushed  aside  by  the  for- 
ward part  of  the  hull  of  a  well-built  boat  is  al- 
lowed by  the  sloping  rear  lines  to  come  together 
gradually,  and  by  its  returning  weight  and  mo- 
tion helps  to  urge  the  vessel  forward.  A  simple 
illustration  of  the  principle  occurs  when  a  boy 


338  THE  GUN  BOOK 

"shoots"  a  wet  melon  seed  by  squeezing  it  be- 
tween his  finger  and  thumb.  The  bullet  with 
pointed  prow  and  long  tapering  tail  would  act 
upon  the  air,  and  be  acted  upon  by  the  air,  in  this 
identical  manner.  The  vacuum  which  the  broad- 
based  bullet  causes  would  be  filled  up  with  lead, 
and  the  missile  thus  could  be  longer  without  in- 
creasing the  total  air  resistance ;  furthermore,  the 
action  of  the  inrushing  air  at  the  rear  striking 
against  the  sloping  sides  would  help  to  thrust  the 
missile  forward.  With  all  these  benefits  to  be 
derived  from  the  double-pointed  projectile,  why 
do  we  not  adopt  it  at  once?  The  answer  lies  in 
the  difficulty  of  projecting  such  an  object  from  the 
gun  barrel. 

The  idea  of  the  fish-shaped  projectile  is  not 
new,  for  the  great  merits  it  possesses  in  many 
respects  have  been  recognized  for  at  least  two 
hundred  years.  Its  use  has  been  so  far  forbidden 
us,  because  we  cannot  project  it  from  a  gun  barrel 
with  any  degree  of  success,  partly  on  account  of 
its  tendency  to  lean  to  one  side  or  the  other  in 
the  tube,  and  thus  pass  out  unbalanced,  and  partly 
owing  to  the  peculiar  effect  of  the  powder  gases 
acting  upon  its  sloping  sides.  When  the  gases 
are  impeded  by  having  their  direction  suddenly 
changed  the  bursting  of  the  barrel  is  a  likely  re- 


THE  GUN  OF  THE  FUTURE 

suit,  for  easy  escape  is  thereby  prevented,  while 
their  velocity  thus  checked  cannot  impart  much 
speed  to  the  projectile  itself.  The  flat  base,  then, 


«   vT^P*1" 

FIG.  86. — BEST  FORM  FOB  BULLET 
a,  a,  Air  pressure. 

is  the  only  form  in  which  we  can  use  bullets  in 
our  present  state  of  knowledge,  though  perhaps 
at  some  future  time  the  seemingly  impossible  dif- 


FIG.  87. — BULLET  WITH  FLAT  END 
vy  Vacuum  behind  flat-end  bullet  in  flight. 

ficulties  surrounding  the  use  of  the  double-pointed 
missile  will  be  overcome. 

Of  course  ingenious  men  have  already  tried 
placing  a  separate  piece  with  a  flat  base  at  the 
rear  of  an  oval  bullet,  thus  giving  the  powder 
gases  a  vertical  surface  to  act  upon,  while  the 
bullet  once  out  of  the  barrel  would  speed  on  its 
way  alone.  In  shots  thus  made,  the  separate  base 


340  THE  GUN  BOOK 

is  a  projectile  itself  and  a  wild  flying,  dangerous 
one  at  that,  while  no  such  auxiliary  has  yet  been 
produced  which  will  maintain  the  long-tailed 
bullet  in  its  true  position.  Some  better  plan  yet 
remains  to  be  devised. 

The  subject  of  the  gun  of  the  future  must  not 
be  dismissed  without  calling  attention  to  another 
point,  probably  the  most  important  of  all.  This  is 
the  matter  of  sighting.  The  modern  rifle  will 
shoot,  and  with  a  low  trajectory,  as  far  as  the 
average  man  can  see  to  aim  it,  and  is  therefore 
about  up  to  the  limits  of  human  vision  in  range 
and  accuracy.  The  next  step  in  advance  should  be 
in  means  of  reinforcing  the  eye  of  the  gunner,  for 
there  is  no  use  in  improving  the  gun  further  if 
it  is  to  fail  on  account  of  the  firer's  limitations. 
There  are  instruments  to  be  had  today  to  aid  the 
rifleman's  vision,  but  they  are  costly  and  delicate, 
and  their  errors,  however  slight,  tend  to  multiply 
the  original  mistakes  in  sighting.  The  crying  need 
of  the  rifleman  at  present  is  a  cheap,  simple,  and 
substantial  device  by  which  a  distant  target  will 
quickly  be  made  plain  to  the  eye,  and  which  will 
help,  and  not  hinder  the  operation  of  the  gun  by 
its  size,  weight,  and  flimsiness.  Fame  and  fortune 
await  the  inventor  of  such  an  instrument. 

Efficient  as  our  guns  are,  therefore,  they  are 


THE  GUN  OF  THE  FUTURE  341 

still  open  to  a  number  of  very  serious  objections. 
The  improvements  suggested  in  this  chapter  all 
seem  to  be  within  the  bounds  of  possibility,  for 
none  of  them  appears  to  offer  obstacles  more  insu- 
perable than  those  which  have  already  been  over- 
come. We  have  today  scientific  knowledge  con- 
cerning the  causes  of  the  shortcomings  of  our  guns 
better  than  ever  before,  and  greater  mechanical 
skill  with  which  to  put  our  ideas  into  working 
form  than  that  of  any  of  our  predecessors.  Hence 
it  is  not  unreasonable  to  hope  that  the  gun  of 
the  very  near  future  will  far  surpass  even  the 
weapon  of  which  we  now  rightfully  boast. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SHOOTING 

AT  the  Battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  in  1776,  the  Amer- 
ican troops  were  told:  " Don't  fire  until  you  see 
the  whites  of  their  eyes. ' '  Thirty-nine  years  later 
Jackson's  men  at  New  Orleans  opened  fire  at  four 
hundred  yards,  doing  considerable  execution  even 
at  that  distance.  In  the  first  case  the  order  was 
intended  to  eliminate  almost  entirely  the  act  of 
aiming,  while  in  the  later  fight  marksmanship  of 
a  high  order  was  called  for.  In  these  two  inci- 
dents we  see  the  striking  difference  between  the 
musket,  which  was  chiefly  used  at  Bunker  Hill, 
and  the  rifle  with  which  most  of  the  Americans 
were  armed  in  the  Southern  contest.  Marksman- 
ship can  be  fairly  said  to  have  begun  with  the  in- 
troduction of  the  rifle,  which  in  America,  of 
course,  was  at  least  a  century  before  1815. 

The  ancient  musketeer,  or  even  the  rifleman  of 
a  century  ago,  would  be  amazed  at  seeing  his 
modern  successor  coming  onto  the  shooting  range 
armed  not  only  with  his  gun,  but  with  ther- 

342 


THE  PRINCIPLE?  OF  SHOOTING       343 

mometer,  barometer,  and  wind  gauge  as  well.  Yet 
these  additional  instruments  are  today  all  ordi- 
nary parts  of  the  equipment  of  the  long-distance 
marksman.  The  colder  the  air  the  denser  it  is, 
and  the  less  easily  the  bullet  can  make  its  way 
through;  therefore  a  slight  fall  in  temperature 
requires  an  elevation  of  the  gun  barrel  to  allow 
for  the  extra  drop  the  slowed-up  missile  will  make 
in  its  long  journey.  A  rising  thermometer,  on  the 
other  hand,  calls  for  a  lowering  of  the  rear  sight ; 
for  air,  like  iron,  grows  softer  the  hotter  it  be- 
comes, and  is  thereby  more  easily  penetrated. 
The  presence  of  moisture  in  the  air  makes  it 
heavier,  and  the  bullet  is  retarded  or  quickened 
in  its  flight  as  the  barometer  changes.  Follow- 
ing winds  decrease  the  air's  resistance,  while 
against  head  winds  the  missile  meets  increased 
opposition.  Cross  winds,  too,  tend  to  sweep  the 
missile  to  right  or  left  as  it  speeds  along.  The 
wind-gauge  must,  therefore,  not  only  reveal  the 
direction  of  the  wind,  but  its  velocity  as  well. 
Making  allowances  for  all  these  conditions, 
changing  as  they  do  from  minute  to  minute,  tends 
to  make  rifle  shooting  as  complicated  as  a  game 
of  chess. 

The  missiles  of  r.evolver  and  shotgun,  intended 
as  they  are  for  use   over  comparatively  short 


344  THE  GUN  BOOK 

ranges,  are  less  affected  by  changing  air  condi- 
tions than  the  far-flying  rifle  bullet,  but  each 
weapon  has  its  peculiarities,  strict  attention  to 
which  is  necessary  to  get  out  of  the  instrument 
the  best  there  is  in  it.  Full  discussion  of  this 
entire  subject  is  worthy  of  a  whole  book  instead 
of  a  mere  chapter ;  but  there  are  certain  principles 
of  marksmanship  applicable  to  all  firearms  which 
can  be  briefly  told,  and  without  knowledge  of 
which  even  moderate  success  in  shooting  is  im- 
possible. 

For  instance,  it  is  absolutely  necessary,  in  aim- 
ing any  of  the  three  weapons,  to  hold  it  squarely, 
so  that  it  does  not  tip  to  one  side  or  the  other. 
As  the  leaden  charge  begins  to  fall  toward  the 
earth  the  moment  it  issues  from  the  gun  barrel 
and  begins  to  slow  up  the  instant  the  air  resistance 
in  front  exceeds  the  force  of  the  powder  gas  at 
the  rear,  some  elevation  of  the  tube  is  always 
required,  and  all  hand  guns  are  built  and  sighted 
to  allow  for  this  drop.  With  this  fact  in  mind, 
note  from  the  following  drawing  the  result  of 
firing  a  gun  which  is  allowed  to  tip  to  one  side. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  when  the  weapon  is 
canted  even  slightly  its  missile  will  not  rise  as 
the  arrangement  of  the  sights  intends.  The  effect 
is,  on  the  contrary,  to  rob  it  of  this  benefit,  and 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SHOOTING       345 

at  the  same  time  to  send  it  wide  of  the  mark. 
Without  the  most  careful  attention  to  this  im- 
portant matter  all  other  efforts  at  marksmanship 
are  futile. 

The  proper  operation  of  the  trigger  when  the 
sights  are  on  the  mark  is  also  a  vital  part  of 
good  shooting  with  any  firearm.  The  trigger 
must  not  be  pulled.  Its  release  should  be  effected 


FIG.  88. — Gun  on  its  side  at  a,  sighted  for  target  at  6.    Direction 
of  bullet  is  from  a  to  c,  falling  at  d. 

by  a  squeezing  action,  in  which  the  whole  right 
hand  closes  gently  but  firmly  against  both  trigger 
and  stock;  at  the  same  time,  especially  in  using 
a  light  gun,  the  left  hand  should  tighten  its  grip 
slightly  in  its  forward  position,  under  the  barrel. 
By  manipulating  the  trigger  in  this  manner,  the 
weapon  will  remain  steady  at  the  explosion,  with- 
out the  twitch  which  inevitably  results  when  the 
trigger  is  pulled.  In  aiming,  the  important  mo- 
ment is  that  at  which  the  explosion  takes  place, 
and  if  any  disturbance  in  pointing  the  piece  is 
allowed  then  the  whole  shot  is  spoiled. 


346  THE  GUN  BOOK 

As  no  two  triggers  pull  off  exactly  alike,  only 
earnest  practice  with  any  particular  gun  will 
teach  the  shooter  just  when  the  pressure  exerted 
by  the  right  hand  is  sufficient  to  allow  the  hammer 
to  fall  and  fire  the  shot.  This  practice  can  best 
be  had  with  the  gun  empty,  but  aimed  and 
snapped  as  carefully  as  if  actually  being  fired. 
No  one  can  hold  the  sights  of  revolver  or  rifle 


FIG.  89. — Showing  arrangement  of  sights  whereby  the  eye  in 
aiming  looks  at  the  target,  while  the  bullet  is  projected 
upward,  gravity  later  on  pulling  it  down  to  the  bull's-eye. 

steadily  upon  a  small  target  in  offhand  shooting. 
In  practice  the  sights  wander  over  and  around 
the  bull's-eye,  the  trick  in  marksmanship  being 
to  explode  the  charge  at  one  of  the  moments  when 
the  sights  are  exactly  on  the  mark.  This  is  really 
the  main  thing  in  accurate  shooting,  and  in  the 
operation  the  proper  releasing  of  the  trigger  is 
of  prime  importance.  Only  the  most  delicate  co- 
operation of  hand,  eye,  and  brain  can  bring  off 
hit  after  hit,  and  while  some  seem  to  possess  nat- 
urally the  faculty  for  it,  most  of  us  can  acquire 
the  knack  only  by  persistent  practice. 

In  using  the  eye  for  sighting,  especially  at  a 
distant  mark,  there  is  one  cardinal  principle  to 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SHOOTING       347 

be  heeded,  applying  equally  to  the  shooting  of  all 
the  three  hand  guns;  that  is,  the  vision  must  be 
on  the  target  first  and  the  sights  brought  into  line 
afterward.  The  necessity  for  this  is  plain  when 
we  remember  the  peculiar  action  of  the  eye  in 
adapting  itself  to  far  and  near  sight.  When  a 
distant  object  is  looked  at  the  pupil  of  the  eye 
dilates,  admitting  the  increase  of  light  necessary 
for  a  clear  image.  When  a  nearby  object  is 
focused  upon,  the  opposite  process  takes  place 
and  the  shutters  are  narrowed,  excluding  unneces- 
sary light.  This  change  of  adjustment  requires 
time,  as  we  realize  when  we  go  from  a  well-lighted 
room  to  a  dark  one.  How  important,  then,  it  is 
for  the  marksman  not  to  handicap  his  eye  by 
compelling  it  to  show  him  the  nearby  sights,  and 
immediately  after  call  upon  it  for  a  clear  view  of 
the  target,  dim  and  wavering  perhaps  in  the  dis- 
tance !  The  human  machine,  as  well  as  the  metal 
one,  must  be  humored,  if  hits  are  to  be  obtained. 
One  of  the  worst  evils  in  all  shooting  is  the 
habit  of  flinching  when  the  gun  goes  off.  All  be- 
ginners are  afflicted  by  this  trait,  while  many  ex- 
perienced gunners  have  been  unable  to  shake  it 
off  entirely.  It  probably  spoils  as  many  shots  as 
any  other  single  cause,  for  its  victims  are  seldom 
conscious  of  the  act.  Flinching  is  not  the  result 


348  THE  GUN  BOOK 

of  fear,  for  the  most  courageous  of  men  are  some- 
times guilty  of  it;  nor  is  it  wholly  nervousness, 
because  many  good  marksmen  are  persons  of  high- 
strung  nerves.  Whatever  the  real  cause  may  be, 
we  know  that  the  only  cure  lies  in  cultivating 
familiarity  with  firearms,  and  constant  practice 
in  shooting  of  them,  giving  attention  to  the  habit 
and  striving  to  overcome  it. 

In  shooting  in  the  field,  where  the  ranges  to  be 
shot  over  are  not  accurately  known,  the  judging 
of  distance  is  a  very  essential  part  of  marksman- 
ship. After  our  study  of  trajectories  this  fact 
will  be  apparent,  for  though  the  modern  rifle 
bullet  does  not  fall  much  within  ordinary  shooting 
ranges,  the  variation  is  still  to  some  extent  pres- 
ent; and  even  in  shotgun  and  revolver  shooting 
the  element  of  distance  is  decidedly  important. 
The  persistent  marksman,  however,  will  not  wait 
until  he  is  out  with  his  gun  to  practice  his  mind 
in  judging  quickly  the  space  intervening  between 
himself  and  objects  within  his  view.  It  is  sur- 
prising how  vague  are  the  guesses  on  distance 
the  beginner  at  this  pastime  will  make,  and  equally 
surprising  how  a  little  practice  will  sharpen  the 
wits  in  this  respect.  One  ambitious  as  a  hunter 
or  target  shooter  should  learn  the  length  of  his 
average  pace,  and  while  walking  along  street  or 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SHOOTING       349 

road  pick  out  various  objects  in  his  path,  make 
an  estimate  of  the  distance  intervening,  and  then 
count  his  steps  to  verify  or  disprove  his  judg- 
ment. Such  a  habit  even  occasionally  indulged 
in  will  go  far  to  make  the  judgment  of  distance 
not  only  accurate  but  rapid. 

In  shotgun  shooting  the  target  is  usually  a 
moving  one,  and  here  enters  into  the  problem,  not 
only  the  distance  to  the  object,  but  its  rate  of 
speed  as  well,  for  the  charge  must  then  be  aimed, 
not  at  the  spot  where  the  target  is  when  the  gun 
goes  off,  but  at  the  place  where  it  will  be  when 
the  lead  reaches  it.  Suppose  the  target  is  a  wild 
duck  flying  across  the  line  of  fire,  at  forty  miles 
an  hour,  it  being  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet 
from  the  muzzle  of  the  gun.  The  shot  pellets  will 
travel  on  an  average  of  nine  hundred  feet  per 
second,  which  is  about  sixteen  times  as  fast  as 
the  fowl,  so  that  for  each  foot  the  latter  flies  the 
charge  will  move  toward  it  sixteen  feet.  The  gun 
must  then  be  pointed  seven  and  one-half  feet 
ahead  of  the  creature,  to  allow  the  center  of  the 
charge  to  reach  it.  As  the  angle  of  the  duck's 
flight  changes,  the  estimation  of  speed  and  dis- 
tance must  likewise  change,  and  this  frequently 
at  an  instant's  notice.  Shooting  at  clay  targets 
requires  similar  calculations,  though  in  less  de- 


350  THE  GUN  BOOK 

gree,  for  distances  and  speeds  are  more  uniform. 
The  accurate  judging  of  speed,  as  well  as  of  dis- 
tance, can  be  gained  by  practice,  though  actual 
shooting  at  moving  targets  is  the  only  method  by 
which  the  shooter  can  learn  how  far  to  hold  his 
shotgun  ahead  of  the  object  to  make  successive 
hits. 

In  aiming  the  gaze  should  be  fixed  on  the  target 
itself,  and  not  upon  the  sights.  The  practice  of 
keeping  both  eyes  open,  now  the  common  method 
in  shotgun  shooting,  is  gaining  favor  with  users 
of  the  rifle  and  revolver  as  well.  A  good  clear 
view  of  the  target  is  essential;  and  this  is  aided 
both  by  raising  the  gun  to  the  mark  and  by  using 
two  eyes  instead  of  one.  It  is  the  right  eye,  of 
course,  that  does  the  aiming,  but  the  use  of  both 
gives  the  stronger,  more  definite  vision.  With 
the  shotgun,  in  pointing  ahead  of  the  moving 
target,  the  sight  cannot  well  be  used,  for  the  ob- 
ject would  thereby  be  at  least  partly  obscured  by 
the  muzzle  and  the  time  allowed  is  only  an  instant ; 
so  that  with  this  weapon  the  aiming  is  done  by 
pointing  it  as  one  would  his  finger,  with  arm 
extended.  The  use  of  both  eyes  in  this  work  is, 
therefore,  a  great  advantage. 

Upon  the  difficult  question  of  what  kind  of 
rifle  sights  to  use,  no  advice  can  be  offered  except 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SHOOTING       351 

that  all  forms  be  tried  out  at  the  various  kinds 
of  work  for  which  they  are  intended,  and  then  a 
choice  be  made.  Tastes  and  opinions  differ  so 
greatly  in  this  matter  that  the  experience  of  one 
person  is  seldom  of  any  value  to  another.  The 
front  sight,  if  too  dark  in  color,  will  be  hard  to 
see  when  the  light  is  dim,  while,  if  too  bright,  will 
give  false  direction  when  the  sun  shines  upon 
one  side  of  it.  The  latest  cure  devised  for  these 
evils  besetting  the  front  sight  is  make  it  bright 
and  then  place  over  it  a  hood  to  exclude  excessive 
illumination.  Such  is  the  equipment  used  upon 
our  present  army  rifle.  In  target  shooting  over 
long  ranges  the  micrometer  adjusters  on  rear 
sights  are  the  necessary  and  important  consid- 
eration. For  short-range  practice  the  rifleman 
may  indulge  his  own  fancy.  The  needs  of  the 
hunter,  however,  are  somewhat  different  from 
those  of  the  target  shooter,  for  his  game  may  be 
moving  or  half  concealed,  making  it  necessary 
for  him  to  get  the  clearest  view  possible  of  the 
creature.  A  rear  sight  with  a  deep  narrow  slot 
will  conceal  his  whole  view,  except  for  the  small 
space  immediately  in  front.  That  rear  sight  is 
the  best  which  obscures  the  least;  therefore  the 
straight,  transverse  bar  with  a  nick  in  it  serves 
the  hunter  well. 


352  THE  GUN  BOOK 

The  best  rear  sight  ever  invented  for  permit- 
ting an  unobstructed  view  and  giving  a  quick,  ac- 
curate line  on  a  distant  object  is  that  invented  in 
1870  by  William  Lyman  of  Middlefield,  Con- 
necticut. It  is  the  peep  sight,  which  does  away 


FIG.  90.— LYMAN  COMBINATION  EEAB  SIGHT 

with  the  nick  to  be  looked  through,  providing  a 
small  circular  hole  in  the  line  of  fire.  Except  for 
the  upstanding  front  sight,  there  is  no  interfer- 
ence with  the  view  so  obtained.  The  value  of 
the  Lyman  sight  for  general  use  has  been  dis- 
puted ever  since  its  appearance,  but  for  long- 
distance shots  it  has  been  adopted  by  the  best 
marksmen  the  world  over.  With  the  coming  of 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SHOOTING        353 

the  high-powered,  far-shooting  rifle  the  supremacy 
of  this  sight  is  now  generally  acknowledged,  not 
only  by  sportsmen  but  by  military  experts  as 
well.  Hence  we  see  it  today  in  a  modified  form, 
affixed  to  the  service  rifle  as  well  as  in  common 
use  by  the  sharpshooters  of  the  Europeans. 

One  of  the  most  important  conditions  necessary 
to  good  shooting  is  a  healthy  state  of  mind.  No 
one  can  shoot  well  when  tired  or  worried  or  ill; 
for  of  all  sports  none  requires  more  concentra- 
tion of  mind  and  control  of  muscles  than  shoot- 
ing. Harmonious  action  of  the  brain  and  limb 
are  absolutely  necessary  to  success.  The  real 
marksman  plans  the  details  of  the  shot  he  is  about 
to  make  before  he  brings  his  gun  into  position, 
this  preparation  being  done  perhaps  deliberately, 
or  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  as  occasion  requires. 
Hence  if  the  brain  be  dull  the  planning  will  be 
faulty,  and  if  the  muscles  do  not  respond  promptly 
their  failure  will  bring  disaster.  Shooting,  there- 
fore, not  only  requires  a  serene  mind  and  great 
self-control,  but  the  admirable  thing  about  the 
sport  is  that  it  teaches  and  encourages  these  most 
valuable  traits. 

Correct  form  in  shooting  lies  chiefly  in  finding 
a  comfortable  position  for  each  style  of  shot  and 
then  sticking  to  it.  The  beginner  should  study 


354  THE  GUN  BOOK 

carefully  the  booklets  issued  these  days  by  am- 
munition concerns,  and  to  be  had  for  the  asking, 
which  contain  excellent  illustrations  of  the  various 
postures  approved  by  skilled  marksmen.  Each 
person,  however,  has  peculiarities  of  his  own  and 
may  safely  depart  in  small  details  from  generally 
accepted  rules.  After  practice  has  disclosed  the 
best  positions  there  should  be  no  variations  from 
these,  since  a  change  in  one  particular  upsets  the 
whole  arrangement,  and  interferes  with  that  uni- 
formity which  is  so  necessary  for  consistent  shoot- 
ing. Above  all,  the  position  should  be  free  and 
easy;  otherwise  strain  and  lack  of  balance  will 
result,  whereby  progress  in  the  art  will  be  tem- 
porarily, if  not  permanently  hindered. 

A  besetting  sin  of  all  beginners  in  shooting,  is 
the  tendency  to  delay  the  shot  after  the  gun  is  in 
position,  in  the  hope  that  a  better  alignment  will 
be  later  obtained.  This  practice  is  a  grievous 
weakness.  While  the  motions  needed  to  bring  the 
sights  upon  the  target  need  not  be  hurried,  the 
piece  should  be  discharged  when  sights  and  target 
first  come  into  line.  There  must  be  no  dallying. 
It  requires  resolution  of  mind  at  first  thus  to  fire 
promptly,  especially  when  something  is  at  stake 
on  the  shot,  but  the  habit  once  acquired  will  prove 
invaluable.  At  target  shooting  it  is  possible  to 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SHOOTING       355 

be  deliberate  in  action,  but  deliberation  and  cau- 
tion must  not  be  confused  with  hesitation.  One 
may  act  slowly,  yet  with  decision.  The  target 
range,  however,  should  be  used  only  as  the  pre- 
paring ground  for  more  manful  deeds  with  fire- 
arms. It  frequently  happens  that  he  who  makes 
the  best  scores  in  practice  is  the  last  of  a  hunting 
party  to  bring  game  to  camp.  Only  the  experi- 
enced hunter  knows  how  often  the  quarry  leaves 
but  an  instant  in  which  to  plan  and  execute  a 
successful  shot.  The  onset  of  a  wounded  bear 
does  not  allow  the  hunter  much  time  for  delibera- 
tion; and  the  dawdling  soldier  will  fare  hard  when 
face  to  face  with  an  enemy,  where  not  only  a 
straight  shot  but  a  quick  one  is  required  to  save 
himself  and  overcome  his  foe.  The  great  merit 
in  trap-shooting  with  the  shotgun  lies  in  the  neces- 
sity for  there  observing  this  vital  element  of  time. 
Given  but  a  second  in  which  to  hit  the  flying  target 
to  best  advantage,  the  trapshooter  must  fire  then 
or  risk  wasting  his  shot.  It  is  for  this  reason  that 
many  fathers,  in  teaching  their  sons  to  shoot,  take 
them  to  the  traps  for  practice  before  permitting 
use  of  the  rifle.  Let  the  novice,  then,  take  as  his 
watchwords,  not:  "Straight  shooting,"  but  in- 
stead the  better  formula:  "  Straight  shots 
promptly  delivered." 


356  THE  GUN  BOOK 

Again,  there  is  a  class,  composed  not  only  of 
beginners,  but  occasionally  of  veterans  also,  who 
in  firing  grip  the  gun  with  grim  determination 
as  if  they  expected  it  to  fly  from  their  grasp  when 
it  goes  off.  Others  handle  the  weapon  as  if  it 
were  a  crowbar,  requiring  a  strong  heave.  Noth- 
ing could  be  more  subversive  of  good  shooting 
than  this  unnecessary  straining  of  muscles,  the 
unconscious  but  underlying  idea  of  which  seems 
to  be  that  these  exertions  of  the  firer  are  necessary 
to  keep  possession  of  the  gun,  or  to  aid  the  bullet 
on  its  way.  In  watching  a  skilful  gunner  making 
hits  the  onlooker  is  impressed  with  the  apparent 
ease  with  which  the  weapon  is  manipulated,  un- 
hurried, unstrained,  but  prompt  and  decisive  in 
each  step  of  the  performance.  Such  marksmen 
have  learned  well  the  adage  which  should  be  kept 
constantly  in  mind:  "Let  the  gun  do  the  work"; 
all  it  ever  asks  for  is  the  unhampered  oppor- 
tunity. 

Up  to  twenty  years  ago  the  American  gunners 
habitually  carried  off  the  world's  chief  trophies 
for  marksmanship.  Then  for  a  while  a  lull  in 
interest  crept  into  the  sport,  during  which  we 
either  failed  to  compete  or  had  to  be  content  with 
minor  honors.  This  period  of  apathy  has  now 
happily  passed,  and  the  principal  championships 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SHOOTING       357 

with  all  arms  are  ours  again.  But  we  should 
not  rest  content  with  the  training  of  a  few  men 
of  special  skill,  and  sending  them  to  win  or  de- 
fend trophies  and  championships.  Honors  thus 
brought  to  us  are  of  small  importance  compared 
with  what  should  be  our  real  aspiration — to  be 
a  nation  of  skilled  riflemen.  It  was  not  unthink- 
ingly that  the  Fathers  wrote  into  our  constitution 
the  declaration  that  the  right  of  the  people  to 
keep  and  carry  arms  should  never  be  infringed. 
Let  each  one  of  us,  therefore,  train  himself  in  the 
use  of  the  gun,  not  only  for  the  health-giving  sport 
afforded,  but  that  we  may  one  and  all  be  better 
able  to  go  to  the  aid  of  our  country  when  she  needs 
us  for  her  defense,  whether  the  enemy  assailing 
her  be  from  within  or  without. 


INDEX 


Air  pressures  discussed,  199 

Albertus  Magnus,  13 

Alexander  the  Great,  9 

Alloyed  bullets,  204 

Ammunition,  uniformity  of  re- 
quired, 93;  high  cost  of,  331 

Arquebuse,  35 

Arrow,  peculiarities  of,  209 

Art  of  war,  as  affected  by  new 
weapons,  291 


Browning,  John  M.,  274,  286; 
automatic  rifle,  286;  machine 
gun,  282;  pistol,  324,  325;  re- 
peating shotgun,  315 

Brunswick  rifle,  130 

Bullet,  advantages  of,  over  ar- 
row, 31;  changes  suggested 
in,  335,  339;  decreased  in 
size,  260;  pointed,  134,  211, 
213;  spherical,  100,  103,  104, 
111 


Bacon,  Roger,  10,  64 
Battering-ram,  8,  19 
Battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  342; 

Chancellorsville,    293;    Cre"cy, 

16,    22,    25,    70;    Gettysburg, 

292;    New   Orleans,   293;   the 

Marne,  294 

Bayonet,  invention  of,  76 
Benet-Mercier      machine      gun, 

277 
Berdan's    cartridge    shell,    171; 

breechloader,  168 
Berthollet,  experiments  of,  156 
Bessemer  steel  process,  183 
Black  Prince,  16 
Block-type  gun,  168,  189 
Blowpipe,  229 
Blunderbuss,  301 
Bolt-type  gun,  149,  168,  189 
Bottle-necked  shell,  206 
Bow,  long,  24 
Bow,  cross-,  28 

Bracconnet,  discoveries  of,  238 
Braddock's  defeat,  123 
Breechloader,    history    of,    139, 

155,  164,  168,  173 


Calibers,  how  reckoned,  103 
Cannon,  4,  14,  17,  251 
Cannoneers,   early   customs   of, 

54 

Caracole,  maneuver,  318 
Cartridges,  162,  164 
Cavalry,  decline  of,  70 
Chassepot  rifle,  151 
Chemical  affinity,  63 
Chilean  nitrate,  59 
Chileans  use  repeaters,  185 
Chip-charging,  189 
Choke-bore,  311 
Class     distinctions     in     Middle 

Ages,  71 
Clive,     attempted     suicide     of, 

45 

Cocoa-powder,  236 
Colt,    Samuel,    his    inventions, 

147,   179,    181,   267,   316,  320; 

machine  gun,  273 
Columbus,  his  guns,  84 
Combustibles,  9 
Combustion  engines,  12;  nature 

of,  62,  65,  68 
Corned-powder,  66 
Cortez,  his  guns,  85 
Crossbow,  27,  28 


359 


360 


INDEX 


D 

Dardanelles  gun,  20,  21 
de  Bange  gas  stopper,  151 
Delvigne  rifle,  128 
Drift   of   bullet,   226 
Dumdum  bullet,  261 


E 

Edward  III,  his  guns,  15 

Enfield  rifle,  187,  190 

English  guns,  early  records  of, 

14,  16 

Explosives,  early  theories  of,  55 
Express  rifle,  203 


Ferguson's  breechloader,  143 
Firecracker,  3,  12 
Fireworks,  10 
Flint-lock,  51,  177 
Florence  orders  cannon,  14 
Forsyth,    Alexander,    discovers 

ignition  by  percussion,  156 
Franco-Prussian  War,  268 
Franklin,    Benjamin,   advocates 

use  of  bows  and  arrows,  30 
Frederick  the  Great,  tactics  of, 

175 

French  cavaliers,  17,  24 
Fulminates,  discovery  of,  156 


Gunpowder,  combustion  prod- 
ucts of,  61;  composition  of, 
64;  discovery  of,  10;  manu- 
facture of,  60,  64,  67;  pres- 
sures produced  by,  61 

Gun  stock,  why  bent,  90,  91 

H 

Hall  advocates  "quantity  pro- 
duction," 146 

Hall's  breechloader,  144,  145 

Hand  gun,  early  models  of, 
23,  33,  34,  36;  introduction 
of,  22,  29 

Henry  rifle,  183 

Hot  wire,  40 

Houiller's  metal  shell,  164,  166 

Hundred  Years'  War,  18,  20 


Ignition,  progress  in,  39,  149, 
156,  163,  169,  171,  173,  332 

Indian  arrow  games,  31;  bat- 
tles, 86 

Infantry,  rise  of,  70 


James  II,  death  of,  54 
Joan  of  Arc,  22 


G 

Gatling  gun,  266 

Gauges,  how  reckoned,  103 

Greek  fire,  9 

Grenades,  299 

Gun,  invention  of,  8;  aids  hu- 
man emancipation,  70,  77; 
effect  of,  on  exploration,  83; 
on  tactics,  75,  291 

Gun  barrels,  248,  306 

Guncotton  powders,  238,  246 

Gun  crews,  early,  49 

Gun  making,  effect  of,  on  in- 
dustry, 82 


Kaiser's  war,  290 
Knights  and  their  customs,  72; 
overcome  at  Cre*cy,  24 


Lancaster  rifle,  130 

Lead,  merits  of,  for  bullets,  100 

Lewis  machine  gun,  278 

Long   bow,   powers   of,   24,   25, 

74 
Long   bullet,    in   muzzle-loader, 

127;  pranks  of,  209 
Lyman  peep  sight,  352 
Lyman-Haskins'  gun,  231 


INDEX 


361 


M 

Machine  guns,  265,  295 
Magellan,  travels  of,  84 
Marine  Corps,  origin  of,  50 
Marksmanship,  340 
Match-igniter,  41 
Match-lock,  42,  47 
Maxim,  Hiram,  269 
Maxim,  Hudson,  239 
Maxim  machine  gun,  269 
Maxim  silencer,  334 
Metal  cartridge  shell,  164 
Metal-patched  bullet,  257 
Middle    Ages,   warfare   in,   23; 

status   of  common   rights   in, 

70 

Minie*  bullet,  135,  136 
Misfiring  of  guns,  45 
Mitrailleuse,  268 
Mons  Meg  gun,  20,  21 
Moorish  science,  11 
Musket,  36,  44,  100,  177 
Muzzle-loaders,  101 


Potassium  chloride,  59 
Pressures  of  powder,  61,  259 
Priming  powder,  43 

R 

Ramrod  of  iron  introduced,  176 
Recoil,    discussion    of,    88,  -93, 

260;  effect  of,  on  gun  barrel, 

95,  97  ' 
Repeating   rifle,    175,    177,   182, 

184,  187 
Rifle  at  Battle  of  New  Orleans, 

123;  history  of,  111,  116 
Rifling,  modern,  133,  206 
Riflemen  in  Revolution,  122 
Rim-fire  cartridge,   169 
Rocket,  origin  of,  5 
Rodman's  powder,  56,  235 
Roper,  patents  choke-bore,  311 
Rotation,   effect   of,   on   bullet, 

201,  203,  206,  217,  225 


N 

Napoleon  I,  155 
Napoleon  III,  268 
Needle  gun,  148 
Niter  farming,  57 
Nitro  powders,  69,  241 
Nitrocellulose,  239 
Nitroglycerine,  242 
Norsemen,  settlements  of,  85 


Patch,  greased,  119 
Pauli,  gunmaker,  148,  163 
Peabody  breechloader,  167 
Pelouse,  his  discoveries,  238 
Percussion  ignition,  163 
Philip  V,  gun  of,  141,  308 
Pike  as  a  weapon,  74,  75 
Pin-fire  cartridge,  166 
Pinwheel,  theory  of,  4 
Pistol,    316;    self-loading,    323, 

326 
Plymouth  Colony,  arms  of,  52 


Saltpeter,  production  of,  56 

Schultze  powder,  238 

Schwartz,  Berthold,  265 

Serpentine  igniter,  46 

Serpentine  powder,  65 

Sharp's   rifle,    152-153 

Shrapnel  shell,  330 

Shaw's  nipple  and  cap,  44,  159 

Siege  guns,  19 

Smokeless   powder,   238;    effect 

of,  on   gun   forms,  248,  251; 

explosive     effects      of,     246; 

theory  of  explosion  of,  244 
Smooth-bore,  defects  of,  101 
Snaphance,  invention  of,  51 
Spanish  musket,  36 
Spencer  rifle,  182 
Spherical  bullet,  100 
Springfield  rifle,  190 
Springfield-Enfield     rifle,     187, 

190 

Squib,  nature  of,  3 
Squirrel-gun,  120 
Sugar-loaf  bullet,  131,  134 


362 


INDEX 


Tanks,  British,  299 
Thouvenin  rifle,  128,  129 
Top,  how  it  spins,  113,  202,  221 
Trajectory,  discussion  of, 193, 254 
Trajectories  compared,  263 
Trigger  manipulation,  345 


Velocities  and  air  pressure,  200 
von  Dreyse  and  his  needle  gun, 
148 


W 

Washington's  riflemen,  skilful- 
ness  of,  122 

Water-cooling  systems,  disad- 
vantages of,  275 

Wheel-lock,  detailed  description, 
4«7,  48 

Whitworth  rifle,  130,  132 

Winchester  repeater,  184,  187 


Zalinski  dynamite  gun, 


BOOKS  FOR  YOUNG  FOLKS 

MAGIC  PICTURES  OF  THE  LONG  AGO 

By  ANNA  CURTIS  CHANDLER 
With  some  forty  illustrations.     $1.30  net 
These  stories  grew  out  of   Miss  Chandler's  popular 
Story  Hours  for  Children  at  the  Metropolitan  Museum 
of  Art,  New  York.     Each  recounts  the  youth  and  some- 
thing of  the  later  life  of  some  striking  character  in  art, 
history,  or  literature,  and  is  made  very  vivid  by  reproduc- 
tions of  famous  pictures,  etc. 

THE  DOGS   OF  BOYTOWN 

By  WALTER  A.  DYER 

Author  of  "Pierrot,  Dog  of  Belgium"  etc. 

Illustrated.     $1.50  net 

New  York  Sun:  "It  takes  the  cake— in  this  case,  of  course, 
a  dog  biscuit.  ...  It  is  the  most  unusual  book  of  its  kind. 
.  .  .  Dyer  enters  a  new  field  for  boys  ...  all  boys  will  want 
to  know  about  Dogs — their  ways  and  habits,  their  histories  and 
origins.  .  .  .  Threaded  through  this  wonderful  textbook  on 
dogs  is  the  story  of  adventures  of  two  boys  .  .  .  shows  the 
reader  where  to  find  out  about  everything  from  bench  shows 
and  the  care  of  puppies  to  fleas  .  .  .  illustrated  with  photo- 
gra'phs  and  excellent  pen  sketches.  ..." 

BLUE  HERON  COVE 

By  FANNIE  LEE  McKiNNEY 
Author   of   "Nora-Square- Accounts." 

Illustrated.    $1.35  net 

Tells  how  Blue  Heron  Island  and  its  seafaring  folks 
change  "a  little  German  countess  in  white  satin"  into  "a 
real,  authentic  American  girl." 

THE  GUN  BOOK 

By  THOMAS  H.  McKEE 

Profusely  illustrated.     $1.60  net 

A  book  about  guns  for  boys  of  all  ages.  The  history 
is  accurate;  boys  will  remember  the  anecdotes;  and  the 
technical  parts  are  sensibly  adapted  to  show  "just  how  it 
works." 

HENRY      HOLT     AND      COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS  NEW  YORK 


Josephine  Thorp  and  Rosamond  Kimball's 

PATRIOTIC  PAGEANTS  OF  TODAY 

By  Miss  Thorp :  THE  ANSWER,  A  Patriotic  Festival.  WHEN 
LIBERTY  CALLS,  A  Pageant  of  The  Allies.  THE  TORCH,  A 
Pageant  of  Democracy. 

By  Miss  Kimball:  THE  CALL  OF  THE  YOUTH  OF  AMERICA,  A 
Patriotic  Exercise  for  Boys  and  Girls  of  all  ages. 

These  pageants  have  had  repeated  and  successful  perform- 
ance. Full  directions  for  their  simple  staging,  costuming  and 
music  are  given.  12mo.  $1.00  n.et. 

Constance  D'Arcy  Mackay's 

PATRIOTIC  DRAMA  IN  YOUR  TOWN 

By  the  author  of  "The  Little  Theatre  in  The  United  States," 
"Costumes  and  Scenery  for  Amateurs,"  etc.  16mo.  $1.35  net. 
(October,  1918.) 

Miss  Mackay  sketches  the  main  essentials  with  which  any 
fair-sized  town  may  have  pageants,  A  Little  Theatre,  or  an 
Outdoor  Theatre.  She  also  gives  detailed  suggestions  for  com- 
munity Fourth  of  July  and  Christmas  Celebrations,  and  shows 
how  such  celebrations  bring  a  community  into  closer  relation 
and  make  better  Americans. 
Alice  Johnston  Walker's 

LAFAYETTE,   COLUMBUS   and   THE  LONG   KNIVES 
IN  ILLINOIS.    Plays  for  Young  Folk. 

By  the  author  of  "Little  Plays  from  American  History.  16mo. 
Probable  price,  $1.50  net.  (February,  1919.) 

These  plays  take  from  an  hour  to  an  hour  and  a  half,  and 
have  been  tested  by  performance.     Each  contains  a  number  of 
very    picturesque,    tho    easily   made    settings.  0  George    Rogers 
Clark  the  frontiersman  is  the  leading  character  in  the  last. 
Louis  Calvert's  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  ACTOR 

With  Introduction  by  Clayton  Hamilton  and  index.    $1.60  net. 

Mr.   Hamilton   says  this  books  shows  "the  great  love  for  a 
great  thing  that  has  been  felt  by  a  great  man,"  and  Mr.  John 
Corbin   in    The   Times  calls   it,   "The  best  book  on   acting   in 
English  .   .   .  teems  with  happy  anecdotes." 
Romain  Rolland's 

THE  FOURTEENTH  OF  JULY  AND  DANTON 

Plays    of    the    French    Revolution    for    a    People's    Theatre. 
Authorized    edition   translated   by  BARRETT   H.   CLARK.     12mo. 
$1.50  net     (August,  1918.) 
Romain  Rolland's  THE  PEOPLE'S  THEATRE 

Authorized  edition  translated  by  BARRETT  H.  CLARK.  12mo. 
Probable  price,  $1.35  net.  (In  Press.) 

The  author  here  touches  on  many  vital  aspects  of  such  a  play- 
house of  which  Americans  have  but  very  recently  become 
conscious.  While  not  hesitating  to  shatter  idols,  he  has  a 
constructive  program  too,  and  ends  up  "Everything  remains 
to  be  done." 

HENRY         HOLT         AND         COMPANY 
19  West  44th  Street  (viii  '18)  New  York 


BY    ALFRED    BISHOP    MASON 

TOM  STRONG,  WASHINGTON'S  SCOUT 

Illustrated.     $1.30  net. 

A  story  of  adventure.  The  principal  characters,  a  boy  and 
a  trapper,  are  in  the  Revolutionary  army  from  the  defeat  at 
Brooklyn  to  the  victory  at  Yorktown. 

"The  most  important  events  of  the  Revolution  and  much  general  his- 
torical information  are  woven  into  this  interesting  and  very  well  con- 
structed story  of  Tom  and  a  trapper,  who  serve  their  country  bravely 
and  well.  Historical  details  are  correctly  given." — American  Library 
Association  Booklet. 

TOM  STRONG,  BOY-CAPTAIN 

Illustrated.    $1,30  net. 

Tom  Strong  and  a  sturdy  old  trapper  take  part  in  such 
stirring  events  following  the  Revolution  as  the  Indian  raid 
with  Crawford  and  a  flat-boat  voyage  from  Pittsburgh  to 
New  Orleans,  etc. 

TOM  STRONG,  JUNIOR 

Illustrated.     $1.30  net. 

The  story  of  the  son  of  Tom  Strong  in  the  young  United 
States.  Tom  sees  the  duel  between  Alexander  Hamilton  and 
Aaron  Burr;  is  in  Washington  during  the  presidency  of  Jef- 
ferson; is  on  board  of  the  "  Clermont"  on  its  first  trip,  and 
serves  in  the  United  States  Navy  during  the  War  of  1812. 

TOM  STRONG,  THIRD 

Illustrated.     $1.30  net. 

Tom  Strong,  Junior's  son  helps  his  father  build  the  first  rail- 
road in  the  United  States  and  then  goes  with  Kit  Carson  on 
the  Lewis  and  Clarke  Expedition. 


HENRY     HOLT     AND     COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS  NEW  YORK 


COMPANION  STORIES  OF  COUNTRY  LIFE 

FOR  BOYS By  CHARLES  <R  &URTON 

THE  BOYS  OF  BOB'S  HILL 

Illustrated  by  GEORGE  A.  WILLIAMS.    12mo.    $1.30  net. 

A  lively  story  of  a  party  of  boys  in  a  small  New  England 
town. 

"A  first-rate  juvenile  ...  a  real  story  for  the  live  human  boy— any 
boy  will  read  it  eagerly  to  the  end  .  .  .  quite  thrilling  adventures." — 
Chicago  Record-Herald. 

"Tom  Sawyer  would  have  been  a  worthy  member  of  the  Bob's  Hill 
crowd  and  shared  their  good  times  and  thrilling  adventures  with 
uncommon  relish.  ...  A  jolly  group  of  youngsters  as  nearly  true  to 
the  real  thing  in  boy  nature  as  one  can  ever  expect  to  find  between 
covers." — Christian  Register. 

THE  BOB'S  CAVE  BOYS 

Illustrated  by  VICTOR   PERARD.     $1.30  net. 

"It  would  be  hard  to  find  anything  better  in  the  literature  of  New 

England    boy    life.      Healthy,    red-blooded,    human    boys,    full    of  fun, 

into  trouble  and  out  again,  but  frank,  honest,  and  clean." — The  Con- 
gregationalist. 

THE  BOB'S  HILL  BRAVES 

Illustrated  by  H.  S.  DELAY.    12mo.    $1.30  net. 

The  "Bob's  Hill"  band  spend  a  vacation  in  Illinois,  where 
they  play  at  being  Indians,  hear  thrilling  tales  of  real  Indians, 
and  learn  much  frontier  history.  A  history  of  especial  inter- 
est to  "Boy  Scouts." 

"Merry  youngsters.  Capital.  Thrilling  tales  of  the  red  men  and 
explorers.  These  healthy  red-blooded,  New  England  boys." — Phila- 
delphia Press. 

THE  BOY  SCOUTS  OF  BOB'S  HILL 

Illustrated  by  GORDON  GRANT.     12mo.     $1.30  net. 

The  "Bob's  Hill"  band  organizes  a  Boy  Scouts  band  and 
have  many  adventures.  Mr.  Burton  brings  in  tales  told  around 
a  camp-fire  of  La  Salle,  Joliet,  the  Louisiana  Purchase,  and 
the  Northwestern  Reservation. 

CAMP  BOB'S  HILL 

Illustrated  by  GORDON  GRANT.    $1.30  net. 
A  tale  of  Boy  Scouts  on  their  summer  vacation. 

HENRY     HOLT     AND     COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS  NEW 


STANDARD  CYCLOPAEDIAS   FOR  YOUNG    OR    OLD 

CHAMPLIN'S 
YOUNG  FOLKS'  CYCLOPAEDIAS 

By  JOHN  D.  CHAMPLIN 

Late  Associate  Editor  of  the  American  Cyclopaedia, 
Bound  in  substantial  red  buckram.     Each  volume  complete 
in  itself  and  sold  separately.      I2mo,  $3.00  per  volume,  net. 

COMMON    THINGS 

New,  Enlarged  Edition,  850  pp.    Profusely  Illustrated 
"A  book  which  will  be  of  permanent  value  to  any  boy  or  girl  to 
whom  it  may  be  given,  and  which  fills  a  place  in  the  juvenile  library, 
never,  so  far  as  I  know,  supplied  before."— .S«,sa#  Coolidge* 

PERSONS  AND  PLACES 

New,  Up-to-Date  Edition,  985  pp.  Over  375  Illustrations 
**  We  know  copies  of  the  work  to  which  their  young  owners  turn 
instantly  for  information  upon  every  theme  about  which  they  have 
questions  to  ask.  More  than  this,  we  know  that  some  of  these  copies 
are  read  daily,  as  well  as  consulted;  that  their  owners  turn  the  leaves 
as  they  might  those  of  a  fairy  book,  reading  intently  articles  of  which 
they  had  not  thought  before  seeing  them,  and  treating  the  book  simply 
as  one  capable  of  furnishing  the  rarest  entertainment  in  exhaustless 
quantities. "— N.  Y.  Evening  Post. 

LITERATURE  AND  ART 

604  pp.     270  Illustrations 

"Few  poems,  plays,  novels,  pictures,  statues,  or  fictitious  characters 
that  children— or  most  of  their  parents— of  our  day  are  likely  to  inquire 
about  will  be  missed  here.  Mr.  Champlin's  judgment  seems  unusually 
sound." — The  Nation* 

GAMES  AND  SPORTS 

By  JOHN  D.  CHAMPLIN  and  ARTHUR  BOSTWICK 
Revised  Edition,  784  pp.     900  Illustrations 

44  Should  form  a  part  of  every  juvenile  library,  whether  public  OC 
private." — The  Independent. 

NATURAL    HISTORY 

By  JOHN  D.  CHAMPLIN,  assisted  by  FREDERICK  A.  LUCAS 
725  pp.     Over  800  Illustrations 

"Here,  in  compact  and  attractive  form,  is  valuable  and  reliable  in- 
formation on  every  phase  cf  natural  history,  on  every  item  of  interest 
to  the  student.  Invaluable  to  the  teacher  and  school,  and  should  be  on 
every  teacher's  desk  for  ready  reference,  and  the  children  should  fee 
taught  to  go  to  this  volume  for  information  useful  and  interesting."— 
Journal  of  Education. 

HENRY    HOLT    AND    COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  CHICAGO 


THE  HOME  BOOK  OF  VERSE  FOR 
YOUNG  FOLKS 

Compiled  by  BURTON  E.  STEVENSON,  Editor  of 
"The  Home  Book  of  Verse" 

With  cover^  and  illustrations  in  color  and  black  and  white  by 
WILLY  POGANY.     Over  500  pages,  large  I2mo.     $2.00  net. 

Not  a  rambling,  hap-hazard  collection  but  a  vade-mecum 
for  youth  from  the  ages  of  six  or  seven  to  sixteen  or  seven- 
teen. It  opens  with  Nursery  Rhymes  and  lullabies,  pro- 
gresses through  child  rhymes  and  jingles  to  more  mature 
nonsense  verse;  then  come  fairy  verses  and  Christmas 
poems ;  then  nature  verse  and  favorite  rhymed  stories ;  then 
through  the  trumpet  and  drum  period  (where  an  attempt 
is  made  to  teach  true  patriotism)  to  the  final  appeal  of 
"Life  Lessons"  and  "A  Garland  of  Gold"  (the  great 
poems  for  all  ages). 

This  arrangement  secures  sequence  of  sentiment  and  a 
sort  of  cumulative  appeal.  Nearly  all  the  children's 
classics  are  included,  and  along  with  them  a  body  of  verse 
not  so  well  known  but  almost  equally  deserving.  There 
are  many  real  "finds,"  most  of  which  have  never  before 
appeared  in  any  anthology. 

Mr.  Stevenson  has  banished  doleful  and  pessimistic 
verse,  and  has  dwelt  on  hope,  courage,  cheerfulness  and 
helpfulness.  The  book  should  serve,  too,  as  an  introduc- 
tion to  the  greater  poems,  informing  taste  for  them  and 
appreciation  of  them,  against  the  time  when  the  boy  or 
girl,  grown  into  youth  and  maiden,  is  ready  to  swim  out 
into  the  full  current  of  English  poetry. 


iIENRY    HOLT      AND      COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS  NEW  YORK 


BY    ALICE    CALHOUN    HAINES 

For  Young  Folks  from  9  to  16  Years  old. 

PARTNERS  FOR  FAIR 

With  illustrations  by  FAITH  AVERY.    $1.35  net 

A  story  full  of  action,  not  untinged  by  pathos,  of  a  boy 
and  his  faithful  dog  and  their  wanderings  after  the  poor- 
house  burns  down.  They  have  interesting  experiences  with  a 
traveling  circus;  the  boy  is  thrown  from  a  moving  train,  and 
has  a  lively  time  with  the  Mexican  Insurrectos,  from  whom  he 
is  rescued  by  our  troops. 

THE  LUCK  OF  THE  DUDLEY  GRAHAMS 

Illustrated  by  FRANCIS  DAY.    300  pp.,  i2mo.    $1.35  net. 
A  family  story  of  city  life.     Lightened  by  humor  a'hd  an 
airship. 

"Among  the  very  best  of  books  for  young  folks.  Appeals  especially 
to  girls." — Wisconsin  List  for  Township  Libraries. 

"Promises  to  be  perennially  popular.  A  family  of  happy,  healthy, 
inventive,  bright  children  make  the  best  of  restricted  conditions  and 
prove  themselves  masters  of  circumstances." — Christian  Register. 

"Sparkles   with  cleverness  and  humor." — Brooklyn  Eagle. 

COCK-A-DOODLE  HILL 

A  sequel  to  the  above.  Illustrated  by  FRANCIS  DAY. 

296   pp.,    I2mo.     $1.35  net. 

"Cockle-a-doodle  Hill"  is  where  the  Dudley  Graham  family 
went  to  live  when  they  left  New  York,  and  here  Ernie  started 
her  chicken-farm,  with  one  solitary  fowl,  "Hennerietta."  The 
pictures  of  country  scenes  and  the  adventures  and  experiences 
of  this  household  of  young  people  are  very  life-like. 

"No  better  book  for  young  people  than  'The  Luck  of  the  Dudley 
Grahams'  was  offered  last  year.  'Cock-a-Doodle  Hill'  is  another  of 
similar  qualities." — Philadelphia  Press. 

HENRY     HOLT     AND     COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS  <vm'12)  NEW  YORK 


BY    CARROLL    WATSON    RANKIN 

STORIES  FOR  GIRLS 
THE  CINDER  POND 

Illustrated  by  ADA  C.  WILLIAMSON.  $1.35  net. 
Years  ago,  a  manufacturer  built  a  great  dock,  jutting  out 
from  and  then  turning  parallel  to  the  shore  of  a  northern 
Michigan  town.  The  factory  was  abandoned,  and  following 
the  habits  of  small  towns,  the  space  between  the  dock  and 
the  shore  became  "The  Cinder  Pond."  Jean  started  life  in  the 
colony  of  squatters  that  came  to  live  in  the  shanties  on  the 
dock,  but  fortune,  heroism,  and  a  mystery  combine  to  change 
her  fortunes  and  those  of  her  friends  near  the  Cinder  Pond. 

THE  CASTAWAYS  OF  PETE'S  PATCH 

Illustrated  by  ADA  C.  WILLIAMSON.    $1.35  net. 
A  tale  of  five  girls  tnd  two  youthful  grown-ups  who  enjoyed 
unpremeditated  camping. 

DANDELION  COTTAGE 

Illustrated  by  Mmes.  SHINN  and  FINLEY.    $1.35  net. 

Four  young  girls  secure  the  use  of  a  tumbledown  cottage. 
They  set  up  housekeeping  under  numerous  disadvantages,  and 
have  many  amusements  and  queer  experiences. 

"A  capital  story.  It  is  refreshing  to  come  upon  an  author  who  can 
tell  us  about  real  little  girls,  with  sensible  ordinary  parents,  girls  who 
are  neither  phenomenal  nor  silly."  —  Outlook. 

THE  ADOPTING  OF  ROSA  MARIE 

A  sequel  to  "Dandelion  Cottage."  Illustrated  by  Mrs.  SHINN. 

$1.35  net. 

The  little  girls  who  played  at  keeping  house  in  the  earlier 
book,  enlarge  their  activities  to  the  extent  of  playing  mother 
to  a  little  Indian  girl. 

"Those  who   have  read   'Dandelion   Cottage*   will   need   no   urging  to 


follow  further.  ...  A  lovable  group  of  four  real  children,  happily  not 
perfect,  but  full  of  girlish  plans  and  pranks.  ...  A  delightful  sense 
of  humor."  —  Boston  Transcript. 

THE  GIRLS  OF  GARDENVILLE 

Illustrated  by  MARY  WELLMAN.    12mo.     $1.35  net. 
Interesting,  amusing,  and  natural  stories  of  a  girls'  club. 

"Will  captivate  as  many  adults  as  if  it  were  written  for  them.  .  .  . 
The  secret  of  Mrs.  Rankin's  charm  is  her  naturalness  .  .  .  real  girls 
.  .  .  not  young  ladies  with  'pigtails,'  but  girls  of  sixteen  who  are  not 
twenty-five  ...  as  original  as  amusing."  —  Boston  Transcript. 

HENRY     HOLT     AND     COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS  NEW  YORK 


